


Return To The Uncharted Territories

by A_Damned_Scientist



Series: Return to the Peacekeepers [2]
Category: Farscape
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Character Interpretation, Alternate Universe, BDSM, Consensual Kink, F/M, Gratuitous Smut, Porn With Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-07 23:13:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17375009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Damned_Scientist/pseuds/A_Damned_Scientist
Summary: While waiting for John’s scheduled return through the wormhole, Aeryn has to survive undercover as a Peacekeeper and Alt-Aeryn has to bluff her way on Earth with John’s family.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> The sequel to Return To The Peacekeepers. Do not attempt to read this without having read that fic first, honestly, it will make very little sense if you haven’t read that. 
> 
> Not that it will make much sense anyway seeing as it is a very long kinkfic. So, take this as a warning for sex and language, but mostly sex. In this instalment there is more kink, but fewer and generally longer sex scenes. There is also a bit more plot, for those who care about that aspect of the story. Indeed, there isn’t much smut (although there is a little kink) after the total sex scene blowout chapter (chapter 4) so those of you who only want to read full on smut can probably stop there. As I progressed with writing this I frankly got bored with the smut and kink. If I ever do write a third part, it might be rated PG! 
> 
> The angst quotient is also stepped up a gear in this one. If that’s going to be a big problem for you, perhaps it’s best to leave this fic well alone. Vinegardog told me the ending was a little heart breaking, but Farscapian, and I see that. 
> 
> Profuse thanks once again to Vinegardog for an excellent beta read. 
> 
> Apologies that it took so long to post (over a month since Laura did the beta-read), but Real Life has intervened and it is a long, time consuming business.

**Chapter 1**

Lieutenant Aeryn Sun, Peacekeeper Special Operations, clutched the child of John Crichton and the Other Aeryn Sun protectively to her lap, like his mother might be expected to do. He was, sort of, her offspring, after all, even if she had not given birth to him. Besides, it was what she felt that she was expected to do.  

She was seated in the copilot seat of a Leviathan Transport Pod, a reluctant passenger as she watched the awesome transit of the pod through the wormhole. Behind her was her reality, her life and the Other Her, ahead of her was an unknown future. Well, at least an unknown fifty or so solar days. Crichton had his eyes clenched, almost shut, and seemed to be muttering directions to himself as he navigated the twists, turns and branches of the swirling maelstrom. How he knew where to turn was a mystery and a special talent she could only guess at. Her inability to comprehend how he was navigating indicated that Peacekeeper High Command would struggle to master this technology no matter what intel she managed to glean and return to their scientists. 

“Mama,” the child clinging to her whined. For the first time, Aeryn realised with absolute and shocking clarity that for the next fifty days, maybe longer, not only would she have to convincingly play the enjoyable role of John Crichton’s lover, she would also have to convincingly play the part of D’Argo’s mother. It was a terrifying prospect. What had she got herself into!? 

It was, however, a bit late for second thoughts: Just then the pod emerged from the wormhole into the low orbit of a planet. White wisps of clouds obscured landmasses, mostly covered in green vegetation, and oceans of dark blue. It looked like the sort of planet that would be teeming with life. 

She wondered with an involuntary shudder if all of it would be as strange as Joan Crouton. 

“Home! Well, Earth, anyway! Home is you and D’Argo,” Crichton declared, sending a strange glance her way. Even after a few days in his company she was still surprised to find that his merest looks did odd things to her insides, stirred feelings she had not felt since she had been with Velorek – excepting the last few days with Crichton, of course, when she had felt them on more than one occasion. 

She smiled indulgently at him and repeated the word she had picked up from paying careful, headache-inducing attention to his rambling outpourings of words: “Erp!” 

“OK, babe, let’s get down on the deck and out of sight of the Big Eyes and Ears before they spot us!” He announced, causing her to sigh with frustration. So saying, he took firm hold of the pods controls once more. Soon he was guiding the ship down towards the coast of one of the larger land masses. As they dropped further towards the planet surface, Aeryn guessed the region he was heading for was a large peninsula on the side of the continent. Aeryn’s gaze switched from being half on John to being entirely on the planet. But his attention, as it had been in the wormhole, was now entirely focussed on flying.  

Aeryn elected not to disturb him. It seemed important to him that they conducted their flight to the planet surface swiftly and unseen by the authorities. Why would he be so intent on that? Was he some sort of fugitive on his home world? The thought was worrying! 

And once again Lieutenant Aeryn Sun wondered quite what she had gotten herself into. 

@@@ 

The pod sat, partially submerged and half hidden by vegetation, in some sort of swamp. They were far from any civilisation. Indeed, far from any sign of habitation. It wasn’t the space port that Aeryn had been expecting, for sure! What other explanation could there be other than her companion was a fugitive? Her reservations were growing stronger by the macrot. 

“John, why are we out here, hiding?” she asked outright. No point in beating around the bush. She needed to know. 

“Oh, babe, sorry. I should have talked to you about it. After the false Earth and then the circus when we actually did get back to Earth the other year, I thought it best if we go under the radar this time. I want to spend our time with my folks, not with the pair of us being interrogated by some man in black in Area 51 or chased here, there and everywhere by the paparazzi.” 

Aeryn only understood part of what he was talking about, but she nodded sagely. Maybe he was lying? Bearing in mind his general incomprehensibility, though, it was hard to know how to proceed other than outwardly to take what she could understand at face value. 

“Ah, fair enough,” Aeryn ventured. “I was beginning to wonder if you had broken some law when you were last here.” 

“Mighta done,” he laughed and winked at her. “Probably a dead cert, actually, but no, that’s not what this is about. You’re not keen to go another round with TR Holt and his goons or R Wilson Munro and his ilk, surely?” 

“No, of course not, “Aeryn replied. She had no idea who those people were but from the way John was talking she guessed that she probably would not want to ‘go another round’ with them, whatever that meant. She really felt she was starting to get the hang of these sorts of conversations: wait for him to finish speaking, and solemnly respond with as few words as possible. Which was good, because she knew that she could expect plenty more of them in the weekens, if not monens to come. 

Aeryn watched and listened studiously as John Crichton pulled out some sort of unfamiliar comms device, pressed some buttons and spoke into it. 

“Hey dad, it’s the prodigal... Is your phone clean?” John spoke into the device. She guessed the person at the other end of the call must be the human John had previously referred to as Jack Crichton, his father. She would have to watch and listen carefully for as many clues as she could gather. 

@@@ 

Lieutenant Aeryn Sun waited nervously in the transport pod, trying to entertain the infant, D’Argo, yet keeping a wary eye out for any sign of a double cross, any sign of anyone approaching who was not John Crichton, just as Crichton had instructed she should.  

“Take off and fly away,” he had told her before he had left. “Should I not return within three arns, saying everything is fine.” Take off and fly where, precisely, she was not sure. They were down a wormhole, possibly in an alternative reality, somewhere entirely unknown to her. She hoped with all sincerity, although she could not fault his logic as to why, that it would not come to that.  

The comms beeped. Well, seeing as nobody else was likely in range, she guessed that it was most probably John, with news fair or foul. 

“Crichton, is that...?” She began. 

“Babe, its John. Fetch the qualta blade and come and meet us.” Aeryn’s heart calmed from its frantic beating. He’d used the code to tell her everything was fine: D’Argo, the infant with the strangely Luxan name, being the qualta blade he had referred to. 

“Understood.” She tapped the comms off. “Come on D’Argo, you and mommy need to go for a walk,” she told the infant, easily lifting a huge backpack and heading for the pod’s exit. Not for the first time, she wondered why the child had a Luxan name. However, she had more than a suspicion it was something that would instantly flag her up to be an imposter should she raise that question with John. 

@@@ 

Aeryn reached the agreed rendezvous point to see John and an older, thin, white haired male with a military bearing standing talking beside a four wheeled, black, ground transport. The two men seemed delighted to be in each other’s company. She guessed that the other male must be Jack Crichton, John’s male progenitor. If so that would mean all was proceeding to John’s plan so far.  

Which was perhaps better than the alternative. 

Leading D’Argo by the hand, she broke cover and started to walk the short remaining distance towards them. 

“Aeryn! It’s great to see you again!” the old male called out, beaming a broad smile towards her.  “And is this my grandson!?” he added, opening his arms and stooping to invite D’Argo into a hug.  

 “Jack! It’s good to see you again, too,” she ventured. From the lack of negative reaction, she guessed she had ventured correctly as to his identity and to an appropriate reaction to meeting him. Meanwhile, Jack was trying to hug the nervous D’Argo - she understood it was the first time the infant had met Jack, as well – and John was trying to relieve her of her rucksack. She allowed him to do so while she watched the Jack-D’Argo interact with curiosity and an indulgent smile. 

“I’ll just throw this in the back of the Ute then we can get going,” John chatted away.  

“Fine,” She nodded, turning back just as Jack relinquished his attentions to D’Argo in order to stand and pull her into a most unexpected hug. 

“Welcome back, Aeryn. It’s so good to see you, and to see you and John properly together. You’ve made an old man very happy.” 

Lieutenant Aeryn Sun was speechless, totally at a loss to know how to respond verbally, so she reacted as best she could, by returning the hug and saying nothing. 

@@@ 

Jack Crichton’s residence was about 40 macrots away by the ground transport. As they grew nearer the wilderness where they had left the pod was rapidly replaced with an increasingly crowded conurbation, including a multitude of other ground transports. Aeryn guessed that John’s plan to remain unnoticed by the authorities rested heavily on the sheer number of people making it easy to hide in plain sight.  

Although Jack and John engaged her slightly in conversation, she was relieved that they did not press matters, seeming to regard it as natural that she would want to speak little and watch the world pass by. Which indeed she did. It was very educational. As was eavesdropping on John and Jack’s conversation. 

All that changed, however, when they arrived at Jack’s residence and stepped inside. 

A female in early middle age practically threw herself at Aeryn, encircling her in a most discombobulating and prolonged embrace. Aeryn guessed at once that she was supposed to know this female so responded in kind as best she could. 

“Aeryn! I’m so pleased!”  The woman remarked, stepping back a little, but still holding on tight to Aeryn’s arms and, with a broad grin on her face staring her straight in the eye, then glancing over at John, then D’Argo, then back at her.  “I knew my thick headed brother would come around in the end! And you’ve got a little one!” 

“Yeah, sis, we got married about eighteen monens… sorry, months ago,” John explained. “And he’s D’Argo, after big D. Married, sprogged and poor D bought the farm all on the same day.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. You seemed so close,” the strange woman empathised, then seemed to change the subject: “And you’ve got mom’s ring!” The woman continued, taking Aeryn’s left hand in hers and staring delightedly at the aforementioned jewellery.  

“Umm, yes,” Aeryn answered, unsure what else to say. She was getting nervous now that her lack of knowledge would expose her. She resolved not to let it show, lest that expose her instead. 

“Hey Aeryn why don’t you tell ‘em? It’s the woman’s prerogative,” John smiled at her. Frell! How could she avoid this? 

“I’m not sure if my English is up to it,” Aeryn tried to sidestep recounting a tale she had almost no knowledge of. She knew that to do so was fraught with potential pitfalls, opportunities for her to reveal herself as an imposter. 

“Use Sebacean they’ve all had translator microbes, they’ll be fine,” John dug her deeper into the hole. Oh frell! She would need to be so careful. 

Aeryn took a deep breath. Thanking Cholak for Larraq’s recordings of Aeryn’s memories and for Hadak’s accelerated sleep learning she nervously began. 

“Well, there’s not much to say, really. We got married during the short war with the Scarrans. It was in a ruined water feature on the planet Quajaga during the final battle...” 

“And that was our third attempt – both the previous attempts had gatecrashers too!” John butted in. Aeryn smiled indulgently and breathed a sigh of relief. 

“And that was when D’Argo was born,” she remarked as though that was all there was to say, drawing on her limited knowledge to make it seem like she knew more than she did. “And that’s it really.” 

“Hardly...” John laughed and nudged her gently. She soon realised that she needn’t have worried too much. As Aeryn Sun she was expected to be sparse with her words, and John couldn’t help but butt in and provide little flourishes of detail. All she had to do was listen attentively and reflect what he had said. And that was the way things went for the next two arms, until D’Argo grew irritable and drew proceedings to a close. 

“Oh, gee sorry guys, you must be hungry AND tired,” Jack apologised. “How about we call for a take out and we can get you settled a bit while we wait?” 

“That sounds great, dad!” John beamed. “Pizza OK with you babe? No chillies, of course!”  

“You decide, John,” Aeryn told him with an indulgent smile. There was no way she wanted to be drawn into choosing strange, alien food until she had even the remotest idea what was being talked about. It seemed the other her had been here before, so might have some preferences, but until she had experienced a few foodstuffs for herself she would have to defer to the others as subtly as she could manage. 

@@@ 

Aeryn dropped her kitbag on the floor of her quarters and slumped onto the bed. Fifty frelling solar days! Fifty frelling solar days until John planned to return through the wormhole. She should be at the wormhole, in orbit around Enstor, waiting for him, just in case he came through early! She certainly shouldn’t be here, pretending to be a Peacekeeper, sharing Captain Larraq’s bed. But what choice did she have? Desert? Become a renegade? That hardly seemed a viable possibility, even though she had years of practice at it – she would certainly lose her only ally and she was pretty sure that she couldn’t successfully evade capture on her own for three months while being tied to waiting at Enstor. The Peacekeepers would know exactly where to find her. It would be pointless. 

She seemed to have no options other than to continue to impersonate her alter ego – Lieutenant Aeryn Sun, Captain Larraq’s trusted second in command and preferred recreation partner. 

Well, at least Larraq would be off for the next few arns, filing reports to the various senior staff on the carrier about the delay in her original mission on the Scarran border and the subsequent apparent failure of Lieutenant Sun’s mission to infiltrate herself with John Crichton. It gave her time alone to think.  

She thought there might even be a senior officers conference which, when Larraq was on the carrier, he would be expected to attend. Of course, things hadn’t gone as badly as Larraq would hopefully be claiming: Lieutenant Sun had in fact succeeded in infiltrating herself into John’s confidences, but if that was revealed, Aeryn’s problems would have been magnified beyond imagining. Best let everyone think she had failed, for now. It did raise the disturbing question of how much help Larraq had given Lieutenant Sun, though. 

Aeryn felt frustrated, she felt tense, she felt... she needed to head to the gym and do some exercise. She quickly shed her uniform, slipped into her gym wear, left a note for Larraq, lest he returned while she was out, and headed off towards the nearest exercise room.  

@@@ 

Lieutenant Aeryn Sun settled between John Crichton’s parted legs and reclined into enveloping arms, allowing her to look up into the clear, night sky. An unfamiliar starscape twinkled above them, the single, large moon almost blinding in its brilliance. 

The meal had been tolerable enough, although the company had been much, much better. But still Aeryn had been secretly pleased when John’s suggestion that she and him would like to go out into the back yard alone had been accepted by Jack, Olivia and all the rest of the family. 

Now a single red blanket trapped John’s body heat, keeping them both warm as the night air grew chill. She had expected him to waste no time in removing clothing and initiating sex, but he seemed happy just to sit and hold her. It was strange, frustrating even. Yet it was also very… she struggled for the word to describe what it was. She decided that whatever that word might be, she quite liked the feeling. 

“What’s that big star called, the bright one?” Aeryn asked in a contented purr. 

“That? Oh...” John wrapped one arm tighter around her waist, while the other twirled a strand of her long midnight-black hair around one of his fingers. Sentimental fool. He kissed her softly on the side of her head and breathed long and heavy in her ear. She felt like her insides were both on fire and melting at the same time. “The bright one? That's my point of reference - my guide. That one’s called Aeryn.” 

Her breath caught and her brow furrowed. She was terrified and yet entranced. Deciding that she needed to act like she expected Aeryn Sun-Crichton would do, rather than Lieutenant Sun, she growled contentedly at his charming nonsense and snuggled in tighter.  

He nuzzled her ear with his nose. “But you are more beautiful than any star.” 

What a ridiculous, sentimental creature he was. When she got him back to their room she was going to frell his brains out. 

@@@ 

Aeryn’s exercise session did wonders for her equilibrium, but after two arns she had built up quite an appetite. Her sweat soon dissipated as she walked back through the carrier’s corridors, but her hunger grew stronger. She had no reason not to, so she stopped off in the commissary for third meal, finding a quiet table to sit and consume her nutritional supplements. 

Two frelling months, near enough! Two frelling months as a Peacekeeper! Still, on the bright side, it would give her plenty of time to work out a plan for contacting John and stopping him disappearing straight back down the wormhole again without her. 

“Aeryn! Sorry, Lieutenant Sun!” Came a half familiar voice. She looked up from her reverie to see the eager and handsome young face of Sub Officer Altar Darell standing on the opposite side of the table. “Are you alone, may I join you?” He asked. 

She waved her hand, indicating he should sit. He looked as cute as she remembered. And she was flattered by the way he was not very subtly checking out her abs and loomas, displayed quite adequately by her workout clothes. 

“I wondered where you’d got to when you just vanished the other day after our...” Altar opined, not as enthusiastically as she had expected. He seemed a little… off. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why. Maybe he would tell her? 

“You know mission details are classified, Sub Officer,” she admonished him gently but firmly, as she would have been expected to. If she was going to make this work for the next fifty days she was going to have to act credibly. However, his transgression was relatively minor, so she then smiled at him. “So, you missed me did you?” 

He swallowed, bit nervously on his lip and nodded. “I thought you were giving me the brush off when you didn’t return my messages, I couldn’t find you anywhere...” the boy was quite clearly smitten with her. It was endearing. And now, with her suspicions about Larraq, she needed to cultivate a new ally. Of course it didn’t hurt that he could make her sojourn among the Peacekeepers a much less onerous experience. His innocence, his infatuated obsession with her, his handsome beauty, all reminded her of John. Larraq was animal lust, he satisfied her sexually, but with Altar, there was something not unlike love she saw in his devoted eyes. After six or seven cycles with John, she had grown quite addicted to the feeling of being loved. Not that he probably knew what that was.  

“I had hoped we might recreate again sometime." He confided. He looked so sad when he told her that, like an infant who had suffered a great disappointment.  

She beckoned him to lean closer with a finger. She leant in too till he was close enough for her to whisper. So, he wanted to recreate with her again, did he? Well, luckily for him, she quite fancied the idea of recreating with him, both for strategic reasons and to indulge her own libido. And in the Peacekeepers, there was no reason why they shouldn’t if they both wanted to. She covered his hand with hers. 

“The mission always comes first. But, now I’m back, I’d like to make it up to you,” she confided, rubbing his wrist with her thumb. She felt a warm glow as his eyes lit up with relief, excitement, anticipation. Oh, he would be so easy to manipulate, certainly compared to the wily Larraq! 

“You want to recreate?” He gasped in a most endearing way. “With me?” She nodded slowly and ruffled his hair. Of course, she didn’t intend to spend the next fifty days in bed with him. There would be no need. She was pretty sure that she could keep his interest with little more than a string of hints and suggestions. 

“Why not? You were a lot of fun.” 

“Thanks, you were too, ma’am.” She ignored his faux pas of addressing her more formally. It must be hard for him. 

“As we’re both in shared quarters, I’ll check your schedule and book us a room.” The Peacekeepers had a very practical solution to the dichotomy of most of their troops sharing quarters or dormitories and yet having an open attitude to recreation – every large ship like a command carrier had rooms set aside for recreation, which could be booked by the half arn. The more senior you were, the better rooms you could book and the more frequently you could book them. Aeryn was pretty sure that after five cycles with Larraq her account would be in considerable credit. Not that she intended to tell Altar that, of course. 

“We could go now, we’re both free?” He pointed out with enthusiasm. Aeryn shook her head. Frell he was keen! 

“I think… the anticipation will be part of the fun. You can spend the wait wondering about what I’ll be wearing and what you want to do with me.” She winked, seeing from his expression that his mind was working on overdrive on those points already. She expected that by the time of any assignation that she did agree to he would be like a pulse rifle with a chamber overload. “You’re getting it, I see,” she confided, rubbing his leg with hers under the table. “So much more fun than a quick mechanical fluid release.” 

Oh yes, young, keen Sub Officer Altar was going to be so easy to manipulate. She might not even have to recreate with him at all! 

@@@ 

Larraq tried not to let his irritation show, but the Captains’ Conference, comprising all officers above rank of Commander on the carrier, had been going on for two arns. 

“And now we come to Captain Larraq’s reports,” Draznot, a junior captain in the intelligence and disruptor directorate remarked. He flicked a report onto the data screen projector. “Two missions this month, both involving your second in command, Lieutenant Sun. Both classified.” 

“And shall remain so,” Larraq stated flatly. Draznot the intelligence officer was annoying him already. 

“And both uncompleted.” Captain Draznot sighed and paused for dramatic effect. Larraq hated him for it. “Does Lieutenant Sun make a habit of mission failure?” The intelligence officer asked dryly. “Perhaps she is unsuited for her duties?” 

“Uncompleted does not mean a failed mission. As I am sure all the more... intelligent officers here will recognise,” Larraq bristled defensively. How dare the pen-pushing little piece of dren criticise a decorated field officer like Aeryn? 

“Well, perhaps, but it is rather hard to say, isn’t it, seeing as both missions remain classified?” the intel officer sneered. 

“And shall remain so!” Larraq reminded him. He was getting furious now. Did the fekkik not realise it could be very dangerous to make enemies among the Black Ghosts? 

“I see...” one of the infantry Company Commanders broke in. “That Lieutenant Sun also received a commendation from the Prowler Flight School.” Larraq reckoned he was trying to pour oil on troubled waters. He clearly had more understanding of the trials and tribulations of active, field service than the intel officer. “The cadet wing she was tutoring graduated last weeken with considerable honours.” 

Larraq was just about to acknowledge the compliment when he was interrupted before he could clear his throat. 

“Perhaps she is better suited to training cadets than Special Operations?” Draznot snarked, not letting go. “Or perhaps... The problem runs deeper? I see you have shared quarters with the Lieutenant for several cycles? Perhaps you have developed an emotional attachment? Perhaps your judgement is impaired when it comes to...” 

“My judgement is just fine. And I decide whether someone is on my team or not,” Larraq replied, barely containing his anger. “Not some backroom file shuffler! Now, if you don’t mind, I have been off-carrier for a weeken. I need a meal, a shower and my cot. Send me a message if you need me for anything. Anything important.” 

And with that he stood and left. 

“Undisciplined lout,” a deck-officer mumbled once he had safely gone out of earshot. 

“Typical Black Ghost,” the commander of one of the grunt companies echoed. “Think they’re above the rules.” 

Captain Draznot grinned smugly. It was always a pleasure getting one up on those jumped up Special Ops drannits. 

However, one captain did sit quietly, thinking. Captain Delan Aznot, Internal Affairs Officer, was somewhat disturbed by what she had heard. She would have to look into the business of Captain Larraq and Lieutenant Sun more closely, just in case they were subversives. 

@@@ 

Her post work-out shower completed, Aeryn pulled on a comfortable tank top and undershorts and sat at the data terminal scrolling through Lieutenant Sun’s messages. 

Delete. Delete. Delete. So much junk mail. She’d only been gone, what, a weeken? Some things never changed. 

The door swooshed open and Larraq stomped in, his face like thunder and his body language a match. 

“You’re back early,” she greeted him with a smirk. 

“I couldn’t stand another macrot of those frellwits...” he explained, tossing off his jacket, careful not to allow his anger to be misdirected at her. 

“I take it the Captains’ meeting didn’t go well?” She asked, standing and inviting him to sit. He nodded, thankfully taking up her offer. She moved round behind him and began to rub his shoulders. 

“One of the pen-pushing intel officers, Captain Draznot, was casting aspersions as to your competence.” 

“Was he now?” Aeryn fumed with righteous indignation, surprising herself that she felt such pride in her performance of her duties. Or maybe Lieutenant Sun’s performance of her duties. She dug her fingers into Larraq’s shoulders, trying both to dig out a knot and physically work out her anger.  

“The fekkik even suggested I might be covering for you because we are recreation partners.” Aeryn fumed, but didn’t allow that to impede her administering to Larraq’s tense shoulders. Draznot? Oh yes, she remembered him now. A revolting man who seemed to have some sort of unhealthy sexual obsession with her. “Oh, that feels good!” 

“Well, in a way, you are, just not in the way that he thinks.” she tried not to let her anger show in her voice. 

“True!” Larraq snorted, clearly amused and growing a little less tense under her soothing fingers and words. “Do you think I might have attachment syndrome? To you?” 

“Hardly likely since we barely know each other?” Aeryn laughed, spinning the chair round so he faced her and straddling his lap, nose to nose, eye to eye, arms swung over his strong shoulders. His hands settled at her waist, supporting her in a manner which Aeryn found most agreeable.  

“Still, if people are talking…” she kissed him briefly. He slid a hand onto her thigh and another up to her looma. “Perhaps we need to be more careful?” His fingers began to stroke as he returned her kisses with a succession of his own. She reached down, took hold of the hem of his shirt and lifted it up, over his head. With his total cooperation the garment was gone in a couple of microts. Her hands returned to massaging his shoulders, pecs and upper arms, now delightfully naked, warm and toned beneath her touch. It was not an onerous task. 

“Careful? Such as?” He grinned at her as his hands returned to thigh and looma and they resumed their exchange of light kisses. 

“Well, no more sex would be a good start.” She smirked. She could feel his arousal pushing up against her. It seemed unlikely that they would start abstaining in the near future. 

“Hold on to that thought,” Larraq grinned, standing, lifting her bodily as he did so in a thrilling display of brute strength. Aeryn wrapped her knees around his waist as he carried her across to the bed. 

He half dropped, half lay her down on her back, taking hold of her shorts and pulling them off towards him in one smooth move. 

Aeryn’s eyes watched Larraq attentively as he efficiently shed trousers and underwear in one smooth move and knelt between her parted thighs. 

“Well, Captain, what are the mission parameters this time?” she jokingly enquired.  

“Take off your top, Lieutenant,” he ordered. As she was doing as instructed, she felt his arms wrap around her thighs, a prelude to his tongue laying her open.  

“Cholak, Janko!” She snarled and hissed, as he continued to feast on her. She laid back, eyes rolling upwards, one hand bunching in his hair, one hand bunching in her own. 

Her hips began to rock, frelling his face back as he relentlessly continued to pleasure her. She bit her lip. She wrapped her legs around his torso. She quivered. She unwrapped her legs. Still he continued,  the only change in his attentions being a hand stretching up to massage her looma. 

Aeryn could take no more: she shuddered and cried out her climax, feeling like every bone in her body had turned to jelly. As she lay there, panting for breath, she felt Larraq sliding up, covering her, mouth trailing a line of kisses up across her abdomen, across her looma, across her shoulder blade, up, her neck.  

She could taste herself on his lips, slick with her juices. He kissed her deeply, tongue sliding into her mouth at the same time and as slickly as his cock slid into her sheaf. 

She cried out and dug her nails into his shoulder. 

Aeryn kissed and caressed him back with passion, but otherwise continued to allow him to make all the running as he frelled her slowly and steadily. Equally slowly, steadily and relentlessly she felt her second climax approaching. Larraq, slick with sweat and panting now also seemed close to climax. She abandoned herself to the pleasures he was bestowing on her body, his warm, wet, shuddering release tipping her over into her own. 

Slowly they came to a halt and their breathing began to normalise. 

“Off, you’re getting heavy,” she instructed after a score of microts, slapping his side gently. Chuckling, he rolled off her. 

“Heavy, huh?” he laughed. “Is that all? Definitely no attachment syndrome there.” 

Aeryn grinned and nodded: “Of course not, didn’t you know I only want you for your body?” she teased. Which was not too far from the truth, seeing as sex to someone raised a Peacekeeper, like herself, was simply a bodily need like eating and drinking. 

@@@ 

Breakfast in Jack’s house was a busier affair than on the first morning. John’s other sister, Susan, her husband, Frank and son, Bobby, had arrived late the previous night and now was Aeryn’s first significant opportunity to interact with them. They had stayed up late the previous night to greet them, but after a score or so of macrots everyone had expressed great tiredness and readiness for bed. 

“John, could you pass the eggs, please?” Aeryn asked. She had discovered the previous morning that she had quite a taste for eggs, bacon, tomatoes and toast, which for reasons unknown to her, John seemed to find endearingly amusing. 

“We ought to have a wedding, well, a blessing….” Jack announced. “A private party to celebrate you getting back here, D’Argo and mostly, of course, your marriage.” 

Aeryn was confused, and struggled not to show it. This was well outside her terms of reference. 

“We don’t have any money, dad,” John explained, shooting her a supportive glance, perhaps hoping he could gently defuse the idea. He’d obviously spotted her look of confusion but fortunately it seemed aligned with what he might have expected from her, had she been his Aeryn Sun. 

“Don’t worry son.” Jack persisted. “It’s not like you’re going to inherit anything when I go, after all. It’ll be on me.” 

John seemed about to say something when Olivia snagged Aeryn’s hand and butted in: 

“I’ll take Aeryn dress shopping – it’ll be nice to go without all the agents like we had last time, won’t it Aeryn?” 

“Umm, I suppose?” Aeryn ventured, not knowing what else to say. 

“Can’t I go with her?” John asked.  

“NO! That’d be bad luck!” Olivia protested.  “Besides, she’ll need more than just a wedding dress and, I’ll be taking her places a gentleman wouldn’t want to be seen. You can take her another time, shopping for jeans, books and videos. This is going to be a girls only trip, right, Aeryn?” 

Aeryn pulled a perplexed face and shrugged. She genuinely had no idea what was going on or how she should react – there seemed to be more to this than a simple commerce expedition, but what that might be, she could not fathom.


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter 2**

If living with John Crichton for the best part of seven years had taught Aeryn Sun anything, it was that a) tech work was not nearly as hard as she had thought when she had been a Peacekeeper and b) that she was actually quite good at it. 

Larraq had all but shrugged when she had told him she wanted to carry out routine maintenance on their Marauder. He’d asked why in a sort of semi uninterested way and when she’d told him she’d learnt that it could be useful to be able to fix their key kit when away from their usual tech support, he had nodded, taking her point, but clearly having little interest in pursuing it himself.

So, here she was… running systems diagnostics on the bridge of the Marauder. Actually, it was also a good chance both to get some time away from the carrier and its population of Peacekeepers and to keep a regular look out for signs that John might be returning early. Maybe he would see through the Imposter Aeryn’s façade and come back looking for her? No news today, though, just as there hadn’t been for the entirety of her sojourn here. Soon she was going to have to think of a reason to return to Enstor to await John’s scheduled return.

In the arns she’d spent on the Marauder she’d been initially surprised to learn that this was the same ship that her doppelgänger had used to fly to the light carrier Dalla Kappu Seven before she and John had arrived in this reality. Well, she was initially surprised, but thinking about it, it made a lot of sense. It was her Marauder, why shouldn’t she have then used it for the fabricated escape back to Enstor with John and D’Argo?

She ran through more of the logs from that period.

What the frell!?

Why was there a handful of scrambled subspace communications between the Marauder and what appeared to be a transport pod on Enstor at around the time that they had all been there? 

Aeryn checked the log readings. There was almost nothing there except the times, dates, which end, pod or marauder, instigated each call and that the communications were scrambled.

A cold chill gripped Aeryn’s heart: Larraq had been in contact with Lieutenant Sun before their Pod had reached Enstor, and they had then communicated twice more, the last one just before their fateful face to face meeting!  There was no other explanation. And if that were the case, what was going on? Could Larraq and Lieutenant Sun have been conspiring over something? Almost certainly, otherwise, at some point, he would have mentioned it. But what?

Aeryn’s mind spun as she tried to remember details: Lieutenant Sun was pretending to be her in order to gain intelligence about wormholes! Larraq could well have been complicit in that! And what better way to gain intelligence that go with John down a wormhole? Aeryn recalled how Larraq had been conscious when she had been shot with the stun gun, and then conscious again when she had revived – she only had his word for what had transpired in between!

Her heart as chilled as the ice planet, Aeryn realised with certainty that she could not trust Larraq! Of course she could not reveal her suspicions to him – he knew her real identity – she needed to maintain the impression that she harboured no suspicions about him.

But… she would have to play her cards very close to her chest in future, for sure! He had potentially foiled her reuniting with John once and might well try to do so again. Why, as yet she could only guess. But what she really needed was someone else on her side!

@@@

"Trust me, Aeryn, this is exactly the sort of thing you ought to wear at the party!” Olivia gushed. Susan, although less excitable, nodded in agreement. “Walk up and down a bit so we can see you properly!”

Aeryn arched an eyebrow but did as she was asked, tottering to the other end of the opulently furnished wedding dress shop’s changing room on the unfamiliar cream high heeled shoes they had insisted she wear with the dress. There she turned to face further inspection, although she did not attempt to walk back.

“Olivia’s right, like it or not, everyone at the party will be there to celebrate that you and John are married. And have a child. You’re going to be the centre of attention.” Susan supported her sister as the two of them eyed her up.

“And wearing that dress, those shoes, trust me, nobody is going to upstage you!” Olivia butted back in as Aeryn took a step back towards them then stopped in her tracks as she nearly toppled one at the ankle. 

“But these shoes!” Aeryn protested. “I can barely walk in them!”

“The dress needs those shoes,” Susan stated emphatically, eyeing Aeryn up and down. 

“Or ones very much like them,” Olivia confirmed. “You just need to practice. Walk back towards us.” Aeryn shook her head and pouted like a petulant child.

“Do it!” Susan ordered. Aeryn, used to taking orders, began to comply, slowly and unsteadily.

“But it’s all so impractical! Where would I put anything? Where would I hide my gun?” Aeryn continued to protest as Olivia walked up to stand next to her, ready to grab her elbow if needed.

“The only guns you’re going to need in that dress,” Olivia laughed, “Are the ones right.... here!” She waved her finger, pointing slowly at each of Aeryn’s loomas in turn. 

“And that dress displays them perfectly,” Susan agreed with a smirk. “John’s eyes will be on stalks!”

“Or it will, and they will, once we’ve taken her to the next store,” Olivia giggled and winked at Susan.

“Can we at least get lunch first?” Aeryn begged, her stomach rumbling. It had been arns since breakfast and the two Crichton females must have dragged her round two malls and half a dozen dress shops. She decided that she didn’t like this ‘shopping’ business.

Susan rolled her eyes: “You’re certainly not a girly girl, are you, Aeryn? Thinking of food ahead of pretty new clothes!”

Aeryn had no idea how to respond to their banter so she shrugged, arched an eyebrow and then concentrated on smoothing out the ruched silk across her hips and upper thighs with the backs of her fingers.

“A figure like that she can afford not to be,” Olivia told her sister before turning back to address Aeryn: “Sure, what do you fancy?” Olivia asked. Aeryn suddenly felt uncomfortable, put on the spot by the question. She knew the other her had been to Earth before and had a passing familiarity with some of the options. She, on the other hand, had no idea.

“I don’t know... you decide,” Aeryn replied evasively. “I can’t think, not with these clothes and shoes.”

“OK, so ice cream it is then?” Olivia laughed. Susan scowled, but didn’t say anything. Aeryn had no idea what Olivia was jokingly suggesting so she nodded.

“Sure, fine, eyza crim.” 

“Hey, I was half kidding, but why not? Although you’d better take it easy on the ice cream, Aeryn, or we’ll have to bring the dress back!”

@@@

Captain Larraq was a worried man. It was a serious business to be accused of having Attachment Syndrome, especially to a direct subordinate, and especially when you were a Captain, a captain in the Black Ghosts no less. He had been sharing quarters for so long now with Lieutenant Sun that he had subconsciously thought they were above such criticism. 

And yet there it had been, on display at the senior officers meeting.

The simple answer, the correct answer in the eyes of others, especially High Command, would be for he and Lieutenant Sun to go their separate ways.

Except he did not want that. Especially not now. Especially not now that she was no longer really Lieutenant Aeryn Sun, but Aeryn Sun-Crichton, true rank and regiment undisclosed even to him, and their sex life had been rekindled with a passion he had not known with her for a good cycle or so now. Being a Peacekeeper he had never heard of the Seven Year Itch – Peacekeeper liaisons rarely lasted that long – but even if he had, he would have happily embarked on a new seven year cycle with a new Aeryn Sun and let the distant future deal with itself.

And besides, as his only confidant in this reality, this Aeryn Sun needed him. Hezmanna, maybe he was suffering from Attachment Syndrome after all!? There was no way the public persona of Special Ops Captain Janko Larraq could be known to harbour such protective impulses.

No, he needed to keep her close because of the prize of finding out about alternate realities and wormholes. It was his duty as a Peacekeeper to weather the accusations, to find out the truth.

What was he to do? How to square the circle of keeping her in his life and his bed yet defusing the nascent accusations of Attachment Syndrome?

Maybe, if she was still frelling one of those cadets, which he had good reason to believe she was, that would help, if there was documented proof? And while she was off with her cadet or cadets, he ought to add to his own notch count? He was pretty sure he would find plenty of willing partners in the mess halls.

The only problem might be finding a willing partner who looked sound, smelled and most importantly frelled like Aeryn.  

@@@

Aeryn entered the office of Captain Delan Aznot with considerable trepidation. Everybody knew full well who Internal Affairs were, and everyone tried not to cross them. Aeryn had her own special reasons to dread them. It was, after all, Internal Affairs who had condemned her father to death at the hands of her mother, Internal Affairs who had presumably dealt with Velorek after had been arrested by Crais, Internal Affairs who...

“Come in, Lieutenant Sun, sit down,” a middle aged woman seated behind a large, plain desk invited her in neutral, almost friendly tones. As Aeryn settled herself Aznot largely ignored her, seeming immersed in the data screen in front of her. The Captain began to read aloud, as though to herself to clarify her thoughts, finger tracing across the screen as she did so:

“...daughter of Senior Lieutenant Xhalax Sun...  permanent reprimand... attachment syndrome... Captain Talyn Lyczac... terminated, attachment syndrome,” Aeryn’s heart went cold as the litany continued: “graduated Pilot school with honours at fifteen cycles...”

“I was too short at 14,” Aeryn supplied. Aznot arched an eyebrow and sighed at Aeryn’s insubordination but otherwise ignored her.

“Assigned as personal pilot to Lieutenant Tam Velorek... terminated, treason and... attachment syndrome.” The eyebrow arched higher. Frell. Frell. Frell. She did not need this sort of thing, this dragging over of her Peacekeeper past. She was supposed to have only been in this reality for a few arns, if that! Frell John and his stupid plans! “Commended for role in classified mission to rescue a Special Operations team led by Captain Janko Larraq. Transferred to Special Operations under Captain Larraq, promoted to Lieutenant and second in command of unit. Began to share quarters with Captain Larraq... Oh!”  Aznot paused as though in surprise and stared straight at Aeryn, who squirmed under her gaze. “This entry is five cycles ago! Am I right that you are still sharing quarters with Captain Larraq?”

“Special Forces work requires exceptional levels of team work and trust, ma’am!” Aeryn countered stiffly, as though reading from a formal communique on the subject.

“High Command is well aware of that, and does make allowances,” Aznot nodded indulgently in agreement. “But five cycles. That is rather a long time, especially when viewed in the light of your record.”

“Ma’am, are you accusing me of attachment syndrome?” Aeryn felt flustered. She was angry with herself for showing emotion, but couldn’t seem to help herself.

“I am merely stating the facts. Your record is generally exemplary. You are a valuable Officer, as is Captain Larraq.” 

“Then I don’t understand why... I can assure you I have no emotional attachment to Captain Larraq!” She snorted out the words with disdain. It wasn’t hard. She really didn’t. 

“I believe you, Aeryn,” Aznot smiled like a crocodile. “But some of your fellow officers are starting to think otherwise. And perhaps more worryingly say otherwise. It would be... beneficial if there was clear evidence to... dismiss such gossip.”

“You want me to have sex with some random officer!?” she spluttered in outrage.

“Random? Surely not?” Aznot smiled that disconcerting smile again. “Surely, as you are not emotionally attached to Captain Larraq, you have other recreation partners?” Aznot looked aside and tapped on her keyboard. “Although... I see from your record you have not utilised the recreation suites in... Oh... you have not utilised the recreation suites. Not in the last five cycles!”

Aeryn’s heart sank. “I... I have a new recreation partner,” she disclosed, almost in a daze. Frell her alternative self, putting her in this position! “Sub-Officer Altar Darrel...”

“Then I suggest you make a regular recreation suite booking with him,” Aznot huffed, staring at her with a grim expression. “Rather than squeezing him in in an alcove somewhere. For the sake of your permanent record!”

Aeryn felt cornered. She nodded glumly, feeling shocked. So much for being able to string Altar along for a few weekens!

@@@ 

“I had to talk to Captain Aznot today,” Aeryn intimated to Larraq over second meal in the officers’ mess.

“Internal Affairs?” Larraq frowned. “What did they want?”

“Attachment Syndrome. You and my frelling doppelgänger,” she replied with an unhappy, sulky pout. “She’s got her beady eye on us.”

“Why Lieutenant Sun, are you claiming that you’re not that emotionally attached to me?” Larraq teased her back with a grin. Fekkik.

“In your dreams. You’re a good frell, Larraq, and easy on the eye, but don’t be getting ideas,” she reprimanded him with a raised eyebrow and an aggressively waved fork.

“Just a good frell? Not the best..?”

“This is serious, Larraq,” she snapped. “We could end up in deep dren. You know what they did to my parents.”

“Fine, fair enough,” Larraq conceded, growing appropriately serious. “So, I’m sure you’ve had a chance to think about it. What’s the plan?”

“She advised me to make regular recreation suite appointments with that cadet, Altar Darrel, so there was evidence on my record,” she sighed. “You? I don’t know. But I’m sure you’ve a few likely prospects.”

“Darrel? And that’s a problem how?” Larraq remarked casually, reminding her of how culturally different Peacekepers were to humans like John. He exhibited no jealousy at all.

“You’ve no objection?” She vocalised the thought and the concern.

“Why should I? You’ll still be sharing my bed most nights and it’ll give me the odd night off to pursue other interests,” he shrugged. “Captain Hassan has always been there when you weren’t.”

“Fine!” She sighed, shook her head, tossed her fork onto her plate. She was strangely disappointed that he wasn’t more jealous, hadn’t tried to talk her out of it, like John would have done. As to Hassan: she wasn’t sure what she felt about Larraq and her. How much she had changed in her cycles away from the Peacekeepers!

“Aeryn,” he snagged her hand and stared her in the eye with unsettling sincerity. “You… we, I know we can’t afford to mess with Internal Affairs. This is ‘fair warning’. Book a suite as soon as you can.” She nodded, knowing he was telling the truth as he saw it as a Peacekeeper. “And Aeryn, if you’re going to do it, don’t stint, show the boy a really good time. And have fun yourself. Consider that an order.”

@@@

Aeryn had been right, Altar had come to realise as he had struggled through the afternoon with a near semi-permanent half-hard erection: anticipation… waiting… having time to think about recreating upped the ante considerably. 

Ever since the beautiful, stern, older woman had been appointed as his Prowler combat tutor ten monens earlier he had been infatuated with her, but he had never believed his adolescent sexual fantasies would come to anything until she had appeared at Zeeta flight’s graduation party. With a Peacekeepers attitude to sexuality he hadn’t been surprised that she had frelled him at that party, but it did feel good that she had specifically picked him to frell. He had, however, been quite surprised at the strange, unfamiliar feelings, like a mixture of anger, sadness and resentment, that he had since felt knowing that she shared quarters, and a bed, with another man. And then, when she hadn’t followed up afterwards, he had sadly assumed it was a one off.

When she had flirted with him in the mess hall, suggesting they might frell again, he had had his doubts that she had really meant it. But now, to his surprise, she really had arranged a meeting with him! For that very evening! When he had opened his schedule after second meal to find that Aeryn had actually followed through with their conversation of a few days earlier and booked not just one, but a regular “Personal Tutorial Session” with him in the recreation suites, starting that evening, his hopes, libido and cock had practically gone through the ceiling. 

Perhaps there was a chance for him? If he impressed her enough with his prowess, perhaps she would stop recreating with Captain Larraq soon and only recreate with him? Not, he knew, that he could not tell anyone his hopes and fears, least of all her. He suspected that would be seen as him forming an Emotional Attachment, a forbidden taboo among rank and file Peacekeepers.

This was it. Recreation room sanka du twelve. One of the more luxurious suites reserved for lieutenants and above. He could never have booked it at his rank. His cock strained in his trousers, his pulse beat in his neck and he presented his ident chip to the reader. Usually it would have been greeted with a rejecting red light, but this time the reader blinked green and he heard the click of the door unlocking.

He swallowed hard and braced himself. He tried to put on a cool, confident veneer which was quite at odds with the tangled mess of excitement, lust and disbelief that he felt inside.  Satisfied that his emotions might seem under control, he stepped through.

The room was darkly lit, and he barely noticed Lieutenant Aeryn Sun until she spoke. 

“Glad you could make it, Altar,” her voice crooned. There she was, already in the big bed, covers up to her shoulders. “Get yourself a drink, a shower, whatever. Take your time. I’ll be enjoying the view. We can start your training session when you are ready.”

Altar looked around the dimly lit, unfamiliar room. There was a large, open shower alcove on the opposite side of the room to the bed. In a microt he realised Aeryn would have a grandstand view of him showering, should he do so! She had obviously planned this, and who was he to deny her her pleasures?

“Uh, it’s been a hard day, I think I do need to freshen up,” he tried to sound casual as he began to disrobe, starting with his jacket. As he moved on to his boots he looked up to see Aeryn grinning at him, still safely tucked beneath the concealing sheet. She was watching him as attentively as he had anticipated she might, an enormous smirk on her face. As he got down to his shorts, he saw her tongue poking out the side of her mouth, teeth shining white from the bedside lamp. He decided to tease her a little. Turning his back to her, he pushed down his shorts and stepped into the shower.

He knew full well she was watching every movement so, back still turned to her, he put on a tantalising show of flexing and lathering, soaping himself down, not allowing her to see how hard he was growing until a good couple of macrots had passed. Finally, satisfied that his erection had reached full size, he turned to face her.

Lieutenant Sun bit her bottom lip and stared.

“Looks like you’ve got yourself into a bit of a lather,” Aeryn drawled in that sexy low voice he loved. A long, creamy leg was now poking out the side of her sheet, half bent at the knee. It was hard to tell from the angle and distance in this light, but the top of her thigh looked wrapped in a band of fabric, implying a stocking top. He had heard of such things, but rarely encountered them among the Peacekeepers.

“I just need to... rinse off a bit,” he replied, taking his tumescence in one hand and stroking it back and forth under the cascading water.

Aeryn seemed to be watching with a twinkle in her eye and a smile threatening to break out across her lips.

He stopped dead in his stroking when Aeryn took hold of the edge of the sheet and swept it back off herself. He gasped, frozen in mid stroke, at the revelation of her naked body reclining, leaning against the pillows and head board. Well, almost naked, he corrected himself. Her stockings and most definitely non-standard-PK-Issue underwear did cover some of her creamy skin. What was still concealed was almost revealed in a teasingly erotic manner. He swallowed hard. He could tell he was staring, knew his eyes were bugging out, but was rooted to the spot. Staring.

Holy frell! His cock hurt, it had suddenly grown so hard.

“Get yourself dried, Sub-Officer. There are duties I want you to attend to,”she ordered. And although her tone was dry, Altar had no illusions as to what sort of duties she was referring to and no doubt that he would dearly love to fulfil them.

Altar gulped, grabbed a towel and, drying as he went, slowly headed bedwards. As he approached, Aeryn flipped towards him, coming up on all fours, swinging her eema and pouting slightly as she crawled towards the foot of the bed, loomas swinging enticingly beneath her face to the fullest extent that her underwear would allow them to do.

They reached the foot of the bed simultaneously.

“Time for your inspection, Sub-Officer Altar,” she swung her legs round so she was seated at the edge of the bed, her long, lithe legs either side of his more muscular ones. “To check how clean you are. Hold still.” She ordered, reaching out, taking him in hand and eyeing him like a cross between a drill sergeant on a parade ground and a hungry Vorc eyeing its dinner.

He could not suppress a squeak as her long, nimble fingers drew him to her lips. There was a kiss, a lick. And then a feeling of powerful suction as she drew him in.

Altar struggled to control his breathing as Aeryn fastened on to his cock – licking, kissing, sucking. He felt so engorged it bordered on painful.

“You like that, do you?” She teased, her mouth momentarily free between a lick and a suck.

“Oh yes!” He could only groan as her tongue did something unspeakable to the underside of his tip. Hidden inside her mouth, he wasn’t entirely sure what she had done, but none of his recreation partners had ever done anything like it!

“Well, you pass inspection. You’re clean enough,” she informed him, spinning and swinging back onto all-fours as though about to crawl back up the bed. Altar grabbed her hips and held them steady. “I thought I was instructing you?” he heard her laugh as he felt her swing her hips back towards him, causing his cock to slide harshly up beneath her buttocks and onto her back.

He ran his hands over the smooth skin of her eema, back and thighs, delighting in the feel of them, in the sight of his hands and his cock on her. He slid his fingers round her hips, sliding under her underwear, seeking out and finding her warm, soft, wet core.

“Ummm...” she groaned, encouragingly, grinding herself back against him. “Yes, that’s right, Sub-Officer, just there. Perfect.” He felt elated that someone so beautiful and senior wanted to recreate with him. He wanted to be inside her. He wanted to climax inside her. He rocked back, eased her underwear down, then rocked forwards, revelling in the electric sensation as his hardness stroked across her labia, drawn to her entrance like a moth to a flame. The feeling of his tip docking was almost as good as the sight of it slipping from view as he eased the first half dench into her. He paused, revelling in the moment.

“What are you waiting for, Sub Officer?” She growled. Nothing. It was all perfect. Taking firm hold of her hips once more, he pushed forward, just as she ground backwards. Awestruck, he watched as his length disappeared to the hilt, sliding easily into her tight wetness. If anything was better than how it looked it was how it felt. He savoured the moment.

Aeryn let out a very happy groan. “That’s good!” She congratulated him.

Altar began to rock. Aeryn half-groaned, half-gasped in response.

After a macrot or so, he wasn’t keeping time, he leant forwards and cupped a looma, bracing himself against the bed with his other hand. That caused her to mewl with pleasure.

After another short while he grabbed her hair and tugged her head back. That caused her to arch her back and scream with pleasure. “You learn fast!” she snarled.

And then she pushed forwards, rolling and snagging his hand. He allowed her to tug him onto the bed, roll him onto his back, prop pillows behind his head and finally swing her leg over his hip and straddle him. The whole manoeuvre couldn’t have taken twenty or thirty microts.

He stared up into her big, grey eyes, her mane of raven hair, her broad, contented smile. She looked like a goddess to him. 

“I want to be on top for a bit,” she explained, raising herself slightly and then guiding him home into her sheaf as she lowered herself once more. “Most women like this position,” she instructed him, taking his wrists and lifting his hands to her loomas. “And this!” She informed him as she began to rock and he began to knead and caress her.

She shuddered, threw her head back and screeched like a banshee. He could hold back no longer. The charge started at the tips of his toes and the tips of his fingers, rushing to converge in the middle, pouring out of him and into her in a crescendo of tingling pleasure and pulsing ejaculate. He wanted the moment to last forever but sadly all too soon it passed.

“MMMmmm,” she remarked, grinning and chewing on her bottom lip as she dismounted, slumped beside him and pulled his arms around her. “You acquitted yourself commendably, Sub-Officer Altar. I shall be marking you very highly and will have no hesitation in requesting your service in future.” She teased him.

Altar felt a warm glow of satisfaction at her embrace and her words of validation. He suspected he was developing Attachment Syndrome, a grave taboo among Peacekeeper rank and file, or so he’d been instructed all his life. But how could he tell her? She was a senior officer! She would be duty bound not to recreate with him again and to report him to his superiors for disciplinary action!

“I wish we could have more... more than just… this. Don’t you ever want that too?” Altar asked. Aeryn was silent. Her face looked upset and pensive. Then she seemed to snap out of it.

“We can have more every four solar days, for now,” she stated with a grim, business-like expression, totally devoid of the joy she had shared with him only a couple of macrots earlier.

“Yes, ma’am,” he stated, pulling his own Peacekeeper mask back into place, but still hoping that one day he might be more to her than just a casual recreation partner.


	3. Chapter Three

**Chapter 3**

It was a beautiful spring day, just before lunch time, and about twenty of John’s closest earthbound friends and family were gathered in Jack’s back garden for he and Aeryn’s ‘blessing ceremony and party.’ The only people missing were, sadly Doug and Laura Knox and, at that precise moment, Jack, Aeryn and Olivia. The three absentees were all in the house. Olivia had been helping Aeryn get ready and Jack had been summoned a few minutes previously to ‘walk Aeryn out.’

John was thus waiting with eager anticipation to see just how gorgeous she would look after the rumoured wedding-themed makeover from his sisters. After his fantasies of a few cycles earlier, he had high hopes. Then again, they were his sisters who’d gotten her ready. Maybe they’d stuck her in dungarees for a giggle?

D’Argo was wriggling in Susan’s tender care. She had insisted on taking charge of the toddler for the duration, stating that it was only fair to John and Aeryn that they wouldn’t have to worry about controlling, entertaining or otherwise getting distracted by the youngster during their special party. John had agreed up to a point, arguing that it was D’Argo’s party too. Aeryn however, had agreed emphatically with Susan, and so that was that.

The door to the house finally opened and Aeryn stepped through on Jack’s arm. John’s jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out. She was a vision in an off-white wedding gown, a sight for sore eyes in the long, figure hugging dress. The cut exposed acres of perfect shoulder, the expanse of naked flesh only broken by a couple of thin, decorative halter straps, her shoulders and face and the cream of the dress starkly and beautifully contrasting with her long, loose and thick raven hair. There were also yards of leg on display by virtue of the two splits, one running up each side, leading his eyes up her calves, across flashes of knee and on to even more tantalising flashes of her deliciously perfect ivory thighs. The dress would have been a little impractical in a high wind, but otherwise looked fantastic on her. She looked pretty much the spitting image of his dress shop fantasy of years before.  

He caught brief sight of Bobby – the teenager’s eyes were practically on stalks, his mouth agape. John knew just how the hormonally challenge youngster felt. 

“Oh, that so works!” John breathed in excitement as, steadied on Jack’s arm, Aeryn slowly and somewhat unsteadily stepped down the path towards him, looking every dench the beautiful, blushing rose and not a single dench the ex-Peacekeeper, ex-Assassin with a bad attitude concerning almost everything. Someone had been teaching her how to walk in heels, but it still looked like it was a good job that Jack had her arm.

“Dearly beloved...” The blessing began. It was mercifully short, conducted by Susan’s husband, Frank, who moonlighted on Sundays as a lay preacher from his weekday job as a lawyer. It was also mercifully short of violent and horribly beweaponed interruptions. After a couple of microts, ceremony having been satisfied, he declared by the authority invested in him by God and the state of Connecticut: “In the sight of God and these witnesses, I pronounce you blessed as man and wife. May no man. Woman or bug-eyed monster put them asunder. John Crichton, you may kiss you wife!”

A round of applause broke out as John took Aeryn in his arms and kissed her as passionately as decorum would allow in front of family members of all ages. John barely noticed their claps, only being shaken from his private little oscular world when D’Argo’s voice cut clearly through the noise.

“Aunty Susan, are you going to look after me now for the next couple of arns like Aunty Chiana does when they’re kissing like this?”

John broke off the kiss, turning beetroot red, wondering who else had heard his son’s enquiry. If anybody had, they were being discreet about it, as nobody mentioned it. Instead, everyone milled around, converging on he and Aeryn in twos and threes to express momentary congratulations, exchange a handshake or a kiss on one or both of he and Aeryn’s cheeks, and then make way towards the food to allow the next party goer to do similar.

After a good half an arn of being congratulated, John was quite relieved when the procession seemed to dry up, allowing him to steer Aeryn towards the now moderately depleted buffet.

“You owe me,” she wryly remarked as, with a gentle hand on her back, he guided her towards the chicken salad. Boy was he hungry!

“Don’t tell me you’re not enjoying yourself, being a princess for a day?” She arched an eyebrow at that and lifted a plate, but didn’t verbally confirm or deny his assertion. 

“Just don’t eat too much,” she leant in close to confide in his ear. “Because I will not be accepting overeating as an excuse for underperformance later in bed.”

John nearly spat out the sandwich that he had been stuffing into his face (as a temporary stopgap) at that remark. Yep, that was all his Aeryn, alright. There was nobody quite like her in this or any other universe.

@@@

Aeryn caught sight of Altar across the docking bay as she stepped out onto the top step of the transport pod’s ladder. The height of the ladder afforded her an excellent view, enabling her to see almost everything and everyone between her and the bulkhead wall. He was dressed in a flight suit, deep in discussion with a couple of techs beside a Prowler. Good, that gave her plenty of time to get over there, as she needed to talk to him.

It was the senior tech who saw her first. Recognising her lieutenant’s uniform he snapped to attention, causing the others in his vicinity, including Altar, to turn around and, belatedly do likewise.

“Lieutenant,” the senior tech acknowledged her.

“Tech-sergeant, Sub-officer,” she nodded back.

“Aeryn, could you tell these…” Altar began, but Aeryn cut him off with a frown.

“Are you on duty?” She asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, so am I. When on duty, it is Lieutenant Sun, Sub-Officer Darrel,” she gently but firmly reminded him. He blushed, bit his lip and lowered his gaze. She hated to do it to him, but it was necessary to maintain discipline. There could be no favourites in her Peacekeepers when on duty. “Try again,” she added more softly, her point made.

“Lieutenant Sun, the tech-sergeant will not release this Prowler for my scheduled flight assignment,” Altar began. “I need to get going.”

“And why is that?” She addressed the tech, gently but firmly.

“Lieutenant,” he sighed. “As I explained to the Sub-Officer, there is an unexplained pressure fluctuation of 70% in the main Froonium line. The consequences could be… terminal.”

“I see,” she nodded. “Then you were correct not to release the Prowler for flight duty. Could I have a few microts alone with the Sub Officer?”

The techs nodded, murmured agreement and happily made themselves scarce, anticipating with satisfaction that the uppity and inexperienced pilot was about to get a dressing down from the senior officer. Aeryn waited till they were out of earshot.

“Aeryn…. Lieutenant Sun…!” Altar began to protest. Aeryn cut him off with a mild stare. 

“Why did you do me down in front of them?” he asked in a more subdued tone.

“Altar, you need to learn to trust the techs. You could have been killed. And this very valuable piece of kit destroyed.” She sighed. “Although that’s not why I came over.”

“Huh?” He grunted. “Why did you..?”

“I have a staff meeting tonight and will have to cancel our recreation appointment,” she wasn’t surprised by his reaction. Disappointment was writ large on his features, but he was born and raised a Peacekeeper and knew that duty came first. He didn’t whine or protest.

“But…” she began to offer an olive branch. “It looks like tomorrow night is possible?” His expression brightened and he nodded with an eager grin. 

“However, I think, what with this business today, we ought to play at having a disciplinary hearing. Come dressed in uniform, the safety word will be Prowler…” her voice trailed off as Altar indicated with a nod that one or two of the techs were drifting back into earshot. Aeryn’s voice switched back into a stern and commanding tone. “… so you will report to me tomorrow for disciplinary action, Sub-Officer! I will advise you the time and place!” She concluded stridently.

“Yes ma’am!” He saluted with an appropriate air of neutrality for a junior who had just been upbraided. 

Aeryn nodded, turned to face the techs. “Tech-sergeant,” she saluted then marched off.


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: This chapter is pure porn: first up we have John and Lt Sun, then Aeryn and Altar. I’m not sure either advances the plot any, so you might choose to just fast forward to chapter 5. Or not... if you’ve read this far, I'm guessing you're at the very least OK with the porn?

**Chapter 4**

 

 Finally, John’s family had allowed him and Aeryn to get away to his bedroom for their not-wedding-night! He was starting to wonder if they were going to keep them up talking all night, paying little heed to Aeryn’s growing sulky, sultry looks and John’s increasingly heavy hints that they were feeling tired and perhaps ought to turn in. 

He barely had time to lock the door before Aeryn spun him round, tugging at his tie as she latched onto his lips with considerable fervour. 

“Someone’s feeling frisky tonight,” John sniggered as they came up for air from their deep and prolonged kiss. Meanwhile, he couldn’t help but notice how she was manoeuvring him back into the room, peeling open his suit jacket then dropping it off of his shoulders. Fingers splayed on his chest, she pushed him gently backwards onto the couch behind him.  

“I just hope you’re not really as tired as you were telling your sisters,” she smirked back at him, looming over him like a goddess. 

“With you looking like that? I’d have to be dead.” 

“Looking like what?” she replied feigning innocence, hands on hips as she scowled down at him. 

“Let’s just say your outfit so works, babe,” John told her, eyeing her appreciatively. 

“Really?” she gave a low, dirty chuckle. “I’m not convinced. I want to see how much it works. Show me.” She leaned over him, treating him to a fine view of her cleavage, and began, without any further explanation, to undo his pants. John was motionless, happy to see where she was going with this. She was definitely in one of her most exhibitionist moods today if she was after that sort of feedback on her outfit. Having finished with the fastenings on his pants, she tugged, pulling down both them and his Calvins, allowing his half hard cock to roll free.  

“Hmm,” she straightened, putting a finger to her cheek while she assessed his swingometer and then flicked her hair casually back over her shoulders. His cock struggled off his thigh, trying to stand to attention, to show its appreciation, but it was still a little slow on the uptake. Maybe it had stage fright?  Maybe he should have passed on the last drink? Maybe he really was that tired? “It’s OK, I guess.” She concluded, staring at his steadily awakening manhood. “Maybe you can get it to wake up while I go to the waste alcove?” And with that she turned and sashayed into the en suite bathroom, wiggling her ass for effect. She gave him one coquettish glance back over her shoulder and then swung the door emphatically shut behind her.   

The minutes ticked by. John couldn’t help himself. She was taking much longer than he’d expected in there. If he wanted to ensure that she wasn’t going to mock him when she came out, his cock needed a hand, hell, he needed a hand. He began to stroke himself, all the while thinking of Aeryn: kissing Aeryn; touching Aeryn; having sex with Aeryn. The combined effect of hand and head was to encourage his erection to perk up and hang around.  

The door opened without warning. Aeryn stood in the doorway, letting out a laugh at catching him with his cock in his hand. She quickly stifled her guffaws with a hand over her mouth and started towards him. 

“Tsk, hands off. That’s my job, Erp-boy. If you want something to do, then get the rest of your clothes off.” Aeryn ordered in her most imperious, Peacekeeper tone.  

“Yes, ma’am,” John replied with a salute, trying not to take his eyes off of her as he wriggled around on the sofa, completing the job she had started.  

No sooner had he settled back on the sofa than she planted a foot, clad in white hose and a white slingback shoe between his legs, exposing a long length of silky calf, nudging his balls sensuously with her toes.  

“I believe you have to take off my garter,” she grinned, using both hands to ease the top, split hem of her long skirt up her leg, exposing calf, knee and finally more than a glimpse of thigh, complete with a hint of a lace stocking top and encircled by a frilly white garter. “Or so Olivia told me,” she shrugged. “It’s an Erp tradition.” Well, if that was what his sister had told her, who was he to argue?  

John began trailing his fingers up her leg, starting at the foot, heading for the garter. As he did so, he leant forward. The feeling as his cock knocked against her nylon-covered ankle and calf was so exquisite he got waylaid, caressing her lower leg with cock and hand and her knee with his lips. Finally, when it seemed unwise to delay any longer, he skimmed his fingers over the final length of thigh to reach his destination. He took gentle hold and began to slowly ease the garter back down her leg, stroking with his fingers as he went, making the most of every second his hands were touching her.  

“You wear this and someone’s gonna wanna frell you,” John mumbled, kissing her knee some more as he eased the garter over her shoe. She gave a sceptical snort.  

“Well, if you find out who he is, can you tell me?” she teased. Dropping her foot back to the floor and taking a step away from him. “Because little John doesn’t seem that interested.”  

 “Oh, c’mon Aeryn!” John protested. “He’s standing to attention for ya ! Practically begging ….!” She snorted again at that and let her skirt drop down, hiding her legs. John was forlorn to lose sight of them so soon. Still it was all part of the game. Or he hoped it was. He couldn’t say he really minded. He was having a great time playing along with her.  

 “So, John,” She grinned and reached her hands behind her. “Would you like to see what else Olivia told me I should wear?” He nodded, long and slow. Locking her eyes on his, savouring every scintilla of his reaction, she drew down the zip of the dress and then let it drop from her shoulders. She allowed her gown to fall unencumbered to the floor before stepping out of it and gently kicking it away with one stiletto-and-stocking-clad leg.  

“Oh. Fuck. Me!” John gasped, taking in the sight of her. She was dressed in an exquisitely made bridal basque, complete with suspenders and a matching G-string. The lace top stockings he already knew about, even if he hadn’t seen them in full before. Although from the look of it the ensemble was eye-wateringly expensive, John thought it was money well spent, as the outfit looked like a million dollars on Aeryn. John could tell he was drooling as he gawped at her. He didn’t care. She was his raven-haired goddess and he was her devoted worshipper. She stood before him, hands on gently swaying hips, eyes twinkling, grinning as she bit on her bottom lip, clearly drinking in the reaction of his face, voice and cock to the sight of her.  

“What d’you think?” What did he think? Only that he thought she was about the sexiest woman he’d ever seen. His mind freewheeled, trying to come out with the words. “Little John seems appreciative.” She ogled his now fully engorged cock with wide, happy eyes, an arched eyebrow and a wickedly lopsided grin.  

Aeryn did a little turn on the spot, maybe thinking he needed to see the whole outfit before vocalising an opinion. John was entranced – he thought she looked just as sexy from every angle. The outfit accentuated her in all the right places, showing off much more voluptuous curves than he was used to thinking of her as having. The basque was scooped low in the back, just about reaching the tip of her cascade of lustrous, black hair. The naked cheeks of her firm buns were framed perfectly by the twin suspender straps, the thin line of the G string and the tops of her stockings. John let out a low, appreciative whistle as she completed her turn.  

 “Oh, wow, Aeryn, you look amazing. Gorgeous…  “He shook his head in disbelief at how good she looked. She beamed even brighter. “And so … soooo …. frellable …” He’d never seen anything quite like her, not up close and personal, anyhow. “Let’s go to bed.” He wanted to get her into bed, straight away, make the most of her for as long as he possibly could.  

 She gave him a disapproving frown and wiggled a reproachful finger. “No!” His eyebrows shot up in surprise. What did she mean by that?  

“Not,” Aeryn stated, reverting to her stern-Aeryn-tone and advancing on him with a predatory step and gleam in her eye. “Until.” She settled herself onto his lap, facing him, with her legs folded in half and pressed tight on either side of his thighs, his cock bucking against her crotch and belly. “I.” She ran her fingers across his chest. “Say.” She pressed her lips against his. He almost came there and then.  

Oh frell, it was going to be like that was it? Not that he minded, but bossy, sexy Aeryn was going to give him a heart attack one day!

 Aeryn’s tongue slid inside John’s mouth, searching for and then dancing with his. Her hands began stroking his chest, then they were on his face, then on his arms. All the while his cock pushed more and more insistently against her incomparably firm abs.  

 “I so wanna make love with you, Aeryn,” he whispered into her mouth, imploring her to agree.  

 “No!” She chuckled back, drawing away from his lips for just a second to deliver her stern rebuke with a waggled finger. He stuck out his bottom lip in mock-sadness. Her hand twanged his lip with her index finger and they both giggled. “Not till I say so!” she repeated. God, she really meant it. Just as he was wondering how he was going to cope without his balls exploding from the fluid backlog he felt her right hand slipping between their bellies. Her long skilled fingers began circling his cock, caressing it, stroking it, exploring as much of the length of him as she could reach, as much as was accessible to her touch. She shuffled forwards a little, pressing herself tighter against his shaft, then back to allow her hand more access.  

Then, satisfied she’d found the best compromise between access to his cock and close contact with the rest of him, she recircled her fingers around him and began to stroke.  

Her movements started slowly, languidly even. That was just fine by John. He wanted this experience to last. He wanted to revel in the moment and store up plenty of memories for the future. He just wished the room had a big mirror, so he could see her, see them, from a different angle. Maybe it was just as well there was no mirror: he was struggling to contain his arousal as it was.  

John sent his hands out to explore. If he couldn’t fuck her and he couldn’t see everything, he was determined to feel every inch of her. Aeryn sighed and moaned appreciatively as his hands began to inventory her, starting with her neck and thigh. Slowly, steadily, with no particular hurry, Aeryn increased the pace and force of her grip and started to vary her strokes, all the while kissing him with carnal ferocity.  

His hands tried to be everywhere at once. Stroking her thighs, tangling in her suspender straps, squeezing her ass, fondling her boobs, caressing her shoulders, massaging her neck, running through her hair. Oh, her hair! It looked, smelled and felt like something from heaven. What he wouldn’t have given for half a dozen more hands, maybe a dozen more, just so he could do her the justice she deserved. And all the while they kissed, their tongues weaving around each other, their moans of pleasure mixing, while her hand pumped him like his cock was something she was trying to inflate. Which it sort of was, he supposed. She was tugging him so hard now he could feel his balls jerking up against her with each stroke. He could also feel a dampness on his thighs. She must have been wet as hell for him to feel that, even through her underwear.  

His breaths were coming hard and fast and ragged, and Aeryn’s were too. John thought of himself as a gentleman and he didn’t like to think of her doing all the work and him getting all of the pleasure. However, he was pretty sure she was getting a lot out of this herself, so John refused to allow any guilty feelings to grow. He knew how much she got off on turning him on, knowing how much she could arouse him. He knew because he was exactly the same with her. Next time it would be his turn to focus on her pleasure. He determined just to let her keep doing her thing and enjoy the ride.  

And, oh boy, was he enjoying the ride.  

Indeed, he was starting to enjoy it too much. He was suddenly sliding down the inescapable funnel of jangling, firing nerves towards orgasm, unable to stop himself. He tried to speak, to warn Aeryn to back off, but the words just didn’t come. He was putty in her hands, unable to do anything but respond to the touch, sight and smell of her.  

His climax took him like a whirlwind, whisking him away to another plane. His very being seemed to take flight and he cried out her name.  

A spatter of viscous, warm fluid hit him on the cheek. Then there were others, following on thick and fast. His ejaculate was hitting his chest, shooting over their shoulders, trailing across her bodice, breast and neck, beading in her loose, raven hair. He seemed to keep coming and coming, just like the jets of semen she was still pumping out of him. He started to gasp, almost in agony from the overstimulation, but Aeryn never let up until the spate of cum stopped, until she’d milked him dry, laughing softly all the while.  

His head flopped against her shoulder while he recovered. He felt like he’d been deboned. There was nothing left holding him upright now except for her.  

“Mmm, babe.” He finally found the strength to sit up and looked at her grinning face, unable to stop himself from running his hands all over, as though to check that this incredible woman was real. “I’m sorry. But we’re gonna go all-in, the whole enchilada. Later.” His fingers softly touched her face. Man, he loved this amazing woman.  

 “Oh, John …. you can count on it,” Aeryn chuckled as she leant forward and slowly and with great relish licked the bead of cum from his cheek then leant back and caught his eye.  

“Although ….  What makes you think we’re through for now?” She licked her lips and winked. “First you’re going to lick up your mess. Then you’ve got some different licking to do. And by the time you’ve completed that task, hopefully you should have recovered from your little ‘accident’.”  

“Oh babe!” John laughed. She shot him one of her special, questioning, arched eyebrowed grins. Frell, she was serious. Still, what wouldn’t he do for this woman? He lifted a strand of hair from her shoulder, bringing the cum-coated section to his lips and taking it into his mouth. Sweet and salty.  

“Like that?” he asked. She nodded. He’d never really tasted his own cum before. It wasn’t too onerous. This, he decided, as he moved on to lick her cheek clean, could be a lot of fun... 

Aeryn pointed to a long bead on the bodice of her corset, running up onto her looma – John grinned and licked it off with relish. Then she pointed to a globule of cum on her shoulder – he cleaned it off with a prolonged kiss complete with lips and tongue.  

“Good job, keep it up!” Aeryn encouraged, ruffling her long fingers through his hair as he went in search of the next rope of cum. 

“I think that’s the lot,” John declared at length. She nodded her approval, gasping as he lifted her into his arms to carry her towards the bed. “So, what was my next job?” He dropped her playfully on the bed, pulling her round by the legs until she was positioned with the backs of her knees at the edge of the bed. 

Dropping to his own knees, John hooked her thong with his fingers and eased it down, allowing his lips and tongue access to her – he inhaled her heady, sexy fragrance, and then savoured her sweet, musky taste, like molasses and leather, as he set to work with his mouth, starting with giving her clit a lesson in the English alphabet. 

Once he had worked his way through the first twenty digits of Pi, Aeryn was panting and sweating, her hips rocking and rolling against his face as her body responded to his ministrations. John noted with satisfaction that his cock had now recovered and was starting to show signs of being willing and able once more. Shortly after he started spelling out her name, her hands bunched the sheets and she growled. 

“Get up here now, Crichton, and frell me properly!” She demanded. Chuckling, John gave her one last, long, deep lick for the road and slid up to cover her. As his face passed her loomas, her fingers curled around his cock, and with the guidance of her hand, he slid effortlessly into her sheaf, slick and awash with her juices.  

As he set up his rhythm, he looked deep into the big, beautiful grey eyes of Aeryn Sun. His Aeryn Sun. He felt so privileged – she had chosen to be his and his alone. His wife, his other half, his soulmate. 

“I love you Aeryn,” he told her, she smiled back, squeezing her walls around him. After his first climax, his second would be longer in coming, so he felt free to enjoy the sensation to the fullest, rather than trying to distract himself.  His hands explored freely, mapping and cataloguing every inch of her that they could reach. 

“Oh yes,” he encouraged her, revelling in the feel of her, the eroticism of her outfit, the way she was allowing him to make the running but wasn’t just lying there – she was rocking her hips, wrapping her long legs around his, pulling him deeper, matching the exploration of his hands with her own. 

“What are you grinning at?” Aeryn asked. 

“I was just thinking,” he replied between kisses. “Now I’m on my second wind, I could keep this up for some while...” 

“Why do you think I did it?” she winked back at him. 

“You minx!” he laughed, giving her an extra-long and deep series of thrusts as reward.  

“Oh yes,” she replied with a deep, guttural sigh and a deep roll of her own hips. 

God how he loved his Aeryn Sun!  

@@@

Aeryn Sun-Crichton stood in front of the small desk to one side of the recreation suite, eschewing both the chair behind it and the bed off on the other side of the room. She stood at attention, prim and proper in her formal Lieutenant’s uniform, the same one that she had worn to the cadets’ graduation party. Her stern gaze watched Altar as he, also dressed in the somewhat less elaborate formal uniform of a junior officer, shut and locked the door, then stepped inside, coming to stand a few steps in front of her. 

“So, Sub-Officer Altar Darrel, I see you’ve come to me to be disciplined?” she announced, voice haughty, chin held arrogantly high. It was the roleplay scenario she had suggested to him yesterday in the hangar bay. “Recklessness… insubordination, failure to appropriately address a senior officer. Are all these charges justified?”

“Yes, I guess...” he replied, behaving less like the officer facing discipline and more like a squad mate in the mess hall. He’d have to do better than that! Aeryn bristled visibly, glaring at him so fiercely that he averted his gaze, which had previously been lingering appreciatively on her.

“That’s yes Lieutenant Sun! Yes Sir! Or Yes Ma’am!” Aeryn snapped. “And stand at attention when you are addressing a senior officer!”

“Yes, ma’am! Lieutenant Sun!” Altar barked back snapping gratifyingly to attention.

“That’s better!” Aeryn declared with an unsympathetic smile, circling him, coming to stand directly in front of him, her face denches from his. “In mitigation, you have admitted your infractions. Your sentence is administrative punishment. Ten lashes across the eema. Stand easy and remove your uniform so I can administer punishment, Sub-Officer!”

Aeryn stepped back, glaring at him fiercely as he removed boots. Then off came his jacket, giving her her first clear sight of his physique. His tight black T-shirt showed off his torso and arms to fine effect, but not for long. Shirt and trousers were removed in short order, leaving him finally standing before her in only his hip-hugging tight black shorts. Eema and package bulged in a most aesthetically pleasing way. 

“The prisoner will stand at attention for inspection!” She demanded. To her satisfaction, he complied, remaining admirably still as she circled him once, a grim expression fixed on her face as she checked him out from every angle.

“Hmm. Satisfactory.” She pronounced in a grudging tone. “The prisoner will lean against the table!” Aeryn ordered, moving to stand on the other side.

Her finger ran across the items on the table top, tapping each in turn. “The prisoner may choose the nature of his punishment.” She declared, finger tapping a pair of leather gloves, a short, light whip, a paddle, a selection of vibrators, ranging from a slim one through to a preposterously large, obsidian-like phallus, a set of red and black leather peacekeeper issue handcuffs, a gun like device which delivered mild, debilitating electric shocks, and finally skimming past the tube of sexual lubricant, which hardly counted as a form of punishment in itself.

“I choose your hand, Lieutenant Sun, ma’am!” Altar declared. Aeryn nodded, lifted the leather gloves, and walked back round the table, pulling on the gloves as she went, until she stood behind him.

Aeryn took a long, hard look at the beautiful way his eema filled out his tight black shorts.

“The prisoner is not allowed protective clothing during punishment,” she declared, then hooked her fingers into the waist band on either side of his hips and pulled his shorts sharply down off his buttocks. They tumbled down as far as his bulging thighs and snagged.

“Hmm, that’s better. Your punishment will now commence, Sub-Officer.”

She stood beside and slightly behind him and slapped his buttock firmly, leaving a momentary set of weals where her fingers had impacted. Altar stood firm and resolute. He didn’t flinch for a microt, although his cock swung slightly from the impact. She smacked him again, more momentary weals appeared but this time his cock swung a little less. A third smack and his cock was showing definite signs of engorgement. It was no longer swinging at all. Her fourth smack brought it up to about a third of its maximum, erect angle and a fifth up to half mast.

“The prisoner’s penis will show due respect towards a senior officer!” Aeryn declared, lifting the light whip from the table. When her sixth smack landed, she followed it immediately with a firm tap on the top of his shaft with the whip. She was entirely unsurprised to see that this made his erection grow even more, although a red weal now showed where she had whipped him. As she landed her seventh smack and second tap of the whip, she could hear Altar’s breathing start to grow laboured, a thin sheen of sweat forming on his forehead. But still he stared straight ahead, face impassive, as though he were in a genuine disciplinary situation.

Her eighth smack and third thwack had his breathing growing ragged and her ninth and fourth caused him to bite his bottom lip and take a sharp intake of breath. Her tenth and fifth strokes had him wincing audibly and a trickle of sweat running down the side of his eyebrow.

“The prisoner will remain at attention!” She demanded, marching round to the table and exchanging the whip for the narrowest of the vibrators. She lifted it and arched an eyebrow. Her eyes were locked on his, but his, slightly startled eyes were locked on the vibe. “You will now face additional punishment for being erect without permission in front of a senior officer!” She told him in a faux-harsh tone as she applied lubricant to the tip. To his credit, other than bugging eyes and biting his lip, he showed no reaction, remaining, like his cock, at attention as she moved behind him.

“The prisoner will part his legs and lean his hands on the desk!” She allowed herself to grin now as she was standing behind him, eyeing up his rather fine eema. To his credit he complied instantly and without question. Neither did he move further or object when she pressed the tip against his eema.

He did, however, half wince and half gasp as she eased the vibrator into him. She could see him tensing, but he did not move, taking his punishment like a man as she gained a dench and then another. His sigh and the jerking of his cock told her when she’d found his prostate and she stopped there. Aeryn eyed him up with satisfaction: two mortras of young, beautiful male, entirely at her mercy.

She switched the vibrator on and up to maximum.

“A junior officer will not have an erection or climax in front of a senior officer without permission!” She scolded him.

Altar inhaled, long and deep, then began to pant, open mouthed. But he held still and did not protest, although he did tremble and shudder. “Yes, ma’am!” He panted, obviously failing to comply with the first part of her order and struggling not to infringe the second.

Aeryn watched, fascinated, as he bit his lip, whimpered and his panting breaths grew increasingly desperate. She craned around to check his cock to see that watery cum or pre-cum had begun to dribble from the tip of his organ.

“Please, ma’am!” He pleaded. He was so close.

She didn’t want him to actually climax: that would never do, both for disciplinary purposes and because she wanted his cum for herself. She switched off the vibe and withdrew it. Altar’s panting was supplanted by deep, gasping and perhaps relieved breaths.

“That concludes your punishment,” Aeryn announced, tossing the vibrator onto the table and stepping a couple of paces back as she began to pull the gloves from her hands, one finger at a time. “I hope you have learnt your lesson. You may dress and leave, Sub-Officer!” She announced imperiously, strolling back around behind her desk, momentarily turning her back on his as she went.

“I don’t think so, Lieutenant!” Altar declared, straightening as they each turned slightly to face each other. Aeryn stifled a gasp as she noted that the electric shock gun was now in his hand. His muscles rippled, gleaming from his sweat and his cock stood magnificently and ominously fully rigid. The effect was somewhat lessened by his shorts looking ridiculous, bunched across his mid thighs. Aeryn tried not to laugh. “Now it’s time for YOUR punishment, lieutenant. It’s payback time for telling me off in front of the techs!”

“Impertinence! I am your superior officer!” Aeryn bristled, inwardly delighted at Altar’s improvisation. 

“And for your… improvisational punishment!” He added. She was relieved when he ventured a hand to push the shorts down far enough for gravity to drop them to the floor – if she’d laughed at him, that might have broken the mood. “You’re going to pay for that!”

“I had the authority. You have none!” She replied with an ominous stare, hoping not to overdo it and actually scare him off.

“Do I have to remind you that the door is locked and sound proofed. I am bigger than you, stronger than you, closer to the door and am holding the gun. Unbraid your hair!” He ordered. Aeryn could feel her cheeks flushing and her belly flipping.

Aeryn lifted her hands behind her head, undid the fastening on her braid, then shook her hair loose, finger combing body into it as she went. “Very nice,” she heard Altar remark.

She snorted, cocked her head and raised an eyebrow at him. “Pathetic,” she taunted, tossing her hair fastening aside. Altar grinned malevolently. She shivered involuntarily and excitedly.

Using head and gun, Altar motioned her to walk across to the bed. Heart pounding in her chest, she complied.  “Take off your jacket, Lieutenant!" Aeryn thrilled inwardly but scowled outwardly. She’d loved playing these sorts of games with Velorek and had always been excited when John showed dominance or manhandled her, knowing with both men that she could easily have physically gained the upper hand should she have chosen to. Altar, on the other hand, was a fully fledged Peacekeeper soldier, easily her match and more. The thought made her belly do what felt like backflips with excitement.

“How dare you!” Aeryn glared at him, acting the angry officer. He arched an eyebrow and waved the gun. Cheeks and ears burning crimson, she lifted her fingers to her neck and began to unclick the shiny metal buckles securing her jacket, working downwards. It fell open slightly, giving him the first glimpse of what was underneath. “This is outrageous! You shall go on report for this!”

“Take. Off. The jacket,” Altar smirked, ignoring her empty threat.

Aeryn’s chest was thumping with excitement as she slowly did as he instructed, shucking it off her shoulders, exposing her loomas, which were corralled but not covered in a black leather, red lined, low-cupped corset, a more sexualised version than the one she had worn to the party. She stared at him defiantly as she tossed the jacket aside. He grinned and stared at her nipples, which were each almost completely hidden beneath two small crosses of black tape: she had come expecting some sort of erotic scenario would unfold and had anticipated that hiding them might be of some value in raising the erotic stakes in whatever might occur.

“This has gone far enough!” Aeryn croaked. Altar licked his lips at the sight of her loomas. She knew just how he felt. Her own mouth was bone dry.

“Now your skirt, lieutenant!” Altar ordered. Her stomach churning with the dangerous frisson of their roleplay, she unbuckled her waistband, located and slowly unfastened the main, vertical closure of her skirt, and then bent down to lower it and pass it across her feet

“Looks like you’re dressed for disciplinary action, all right,” Altar snorted, as she straightened up, staring at him defiantly. He stared back, hungry eyes now taking in the full effect of her black stockings, her black leather corset, attached to the stockings via suspenders, and her minimalist black mesh thong.

“You will face severe punishment for this impertinence!” Aeryn snarled, staying in character.

“You’re just going to face severe punishment, lieutenant. Take off those tapes,” was Altar’s dismissive reply. Aeryn’s sex felt like it was doing backflips with excitement as she reached up, found the edge of one of the crosses and peeled it off. She gasped softly at the pull of the adhesive against her sensitive and aroused skin.

“And the other!” he demanded. Heart pounding, she complied, then allowed her hands to drop to her sides.

“Pinch your nipples till they are hard!” Altar ordered, seemingly oblivious to her threat. Glaring at him, with the faintest hint of a smile, she lifted her hands to her loomas and did as instructed. It didn’t take much for her nipples to turn bullet-hard. She was pretty sure her sex was weeping, too.

“Good. Now pick up the handcuffs and put them on!” He ordered. She stood still and frowned. “NOW!” He demanded, waving the stun gun when she didn’t immediately comply. She didn’t need to be told a second time. Aeryn walked back to the other side of the table, lifted the cuffs and complied, desperately trying to keep a straight face. Altar was doing superbly, playing along with their bare bones scenario in a most gratifying way. Altar circled her, sitting in the chair behind the desk, keeping the shock gun in hand and pointed in her general direction to reinforce his dominance over her.

“Time for me to discipline you, lieutenant: bend across my lap so I can see your eema!” Despite having her mobility limited by the handcuffs, Aeryn did as instructed with the most grace she could manage. This was getting interesting, not to say exciting.

She lay across his lap, his tumescence pressed hard into her belly, smelling the pheromone fragrances of his arousal, driving her own arousal further with every deep breath she took.

A loud, harsh smack landed on her buttock. Aeryn gasped. She really should have expected that, she told herself.

“That’s one stroke,” Altar remarked. “Although I am not sure… no, it doesn’t count as your… what was your word? Protective… underwear is still in place.”

It didn’t matter that the tiny scrap of her thong protected precisely none of her buttock from his smack - her suspender straps were the only bit of garment there. She felt him tug the tiny scrap of her thong down, until it rested across her upper thighs. 

“That’s better, lieutenant!” 

Another harsh slap landed on her eema. Another gasp escaped her mouth. 

“That’s one!” He declared running a soothing hand across her eema. Another slap landed. Aeryn let out another gasp. “That’s two!” He intoned. This time, instead of a soothing stroke, she felt a trickle of cold fluid pouring against the crack of her buttocks. She squirmed to no avail except to allow the lubricant to seep deeper. Another slap landed. Aeryn’s sex tingled with excitement as he declared “Three!” As her gasp subsided she felt a clearly well lubricated finger pressing between her cheeks, stroking against her eema ring. Her sex trembled as another slap landed. “FOUR!” He announced as a well lubed finger pressed gently and lightly through her ring, eliciting an even louder gasp from her than previously.

“Five!” He declared as the next slap landed, finger sliding in and out now in a slow, shallow rhythm. Aeryn squirmed more and panted. “Six!” He marked the next spank by withdrawing his finger completely then sliding it back in. Her eyes felt like they might pop out on stalks. 

Aeryn felt Altar shift, leaning across her to lift something else from the table. Her mind raced. She had laid so many toys on the table … what was he getting?

Something colder and harder than a finger slid back and forth between her cheeks. Cholak, it must have been a vibrator! 

“Sub-Officer! I order you not...!” “Seven!” Another slap distracted her for a microt, and when the stinging subsided, she could feel the fake cock pressing against her ring. But she didn’t use the safety word. She bit her lip and inhaled sharply as she felt it squeeze inside. 

“Eight!” A buzzing sound reached her ears just as a buzzing sensation assailed her eema. He’d switched it on! “How does that feel? Now the boot is on the other foot?” She did not answer, could not summon the words or the breath to answer.

“Nine!” Altar stated as his hand landed with another ringing slap. Aeryn was panting now, lower lip and sex both quivering.

“Ten!” Altar announced, as his hand landed more heavily than any previous time. Aeryn let out a wide mouthed gasp. The shock of the impact jolted the vibrator out of her, causing it to fall to the floor, where it lay, buzzing ridiculously. The spanking should be over, but surely he wouldn’t leave it at that? What would come next?

She felt like jelly as Altar half lifted, half helped her to her trembling legs. He pulled her to the spot between desk and bed where a pulley cable hung from the ceiling. As she stood, trembling, half supported by his circling arms, he fastened the cable to her handcuffs and a microt later she felt her arms being hoisted aloft, high above her head. As she was pulled onto her tip toes she felt her thong, already at half mast, tumbling to the ground, down her legs.

“Now for the next phase of your disciplining, lieutenant!” Altar announced softly, it now being his turn to circle her, stopping just behind her, leaning in close, his breath playing across her bare back, shoulder and raised arm. He slapped her eema hard, leaving a tingling sensation where his hand had struck. Sweat beaded on her heaving loomas as she anticipated the next smack, but instead she felt the cool tip of a vibrator slide up between them.

“Well, Lieutenant, what am I going to do with you next?” the vibe started to buzz, spiralling in towards her nipple “I’d say I’m in deep trouble,” He pressed his now naked body against her back. The vibe left her nipple to be replaced by eager fingers, massaging it into a tingling peak. “So I might as well go all in.” he smirked in her ear. “And  _Frell_ you.”

Aeryn shivered with excitement from his words. He suckled and bit on her nipple as his fingers checked her wetness. She could feel that she was awash. Then he wrapped an arm round her waist, steadying her as he slid round to her side, still pressed tight against her, but now his other hand was back with the vibe, touching her navel, sliding it slowly down across her sweat-beaded abdomen... slowly... It reached her sex, teased her for a microt, then was gone.  Aeryn whimpered as he took a step away from her.

He moved back to her rear quarter, and she felt a hand, which she guessed must have now dropped the vibe, returning to her looma. His other hand, the one round her waist, was sliding between her legs from behind, taking over from the vibe!

“I think I’m going to frell you soon , Lieutenant. And there’s nothing you can do about it!” He told her, sliding round fully behind her until his cock pressed up between her legs from behind. Her calves and wrists were aching almost as much as her sex.

She felt his cock slide back and forth across her weeping labia, his passage lubricated by her own juices.

 “I think I’m going to frell you now, Lieutenant,” he growled in her ear causing her to shudder with anticipation. Aeryn was soaking – there really was nothing she could do as she felt his hand guide his cock into place, his other hand steadying her hips as ….  

Altars cock, as rigid as a baton, slid up into her easily, battering her g-spot. She felt his hand uncup her second looma as he pounded into her from behind. Her wrists and calves hurt, but the rushing approach of her climax made that less of an issue.

She let out a long, rattling, gasping sigh as every nerve in her body tingled with release. Altar backed off.

“Now... Im going to come inside you, Lieutenant,” he told her, moving round to the front, positioning himself to take her face to face. “And I want us both to see the other’s face when I do!”

His hands moved his cock into place. She had no means of backing off, no way to avoid his cock as, once again, it slid up into her.

Aeryn threw her head back and gasped as he roughly drove up into her again, pounding, setting up a fierce rhythm, mauling her looma this time, kissing everywhere his lips could reach. He lifted one leg to drive deeper, positioning it over his hip, then leant back a few denches. 

They stared each other in the eyes as he thrust up into her once more, savage in his intensity. 

Their climaxes were simultaneous, and, for her leg-weakening.

A few macrots later, Aeryn found herself being released from the pulley – Altar swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bed, there to lay her down on her side. A microt later she was recovering, lying on the bed, spooned in his arms.

“Did I do alright, Lieutenant?” he asked softly, stroking her hair back from her cheek.

“You did just fine, Sub-Officer,” she told him, snuggling back deep into his embrace. “Rest assured I will not be reporting your insubordination.” Then a thought occurred to her: “Although you could undo the cuffs now?”

Altar laughed and made no move to release her. “The cuffs?” she reminded him.

“Oh, I don’t think so, Lieutenant,” he growled in her ear, causing her breath to catch with excitement just before his hand landed a ringing slap on her buttock. “Not until I feel you’ve learnt your lesson!”

It seemed like he was going to start over again, although clearly with some variations. Safe word all but forgotten, Aeryn surrendered herself to his imagination.


	5. Chapter Five

**Chapter 5**

 

“Oh hey, John,” Olivia greeted her brother as he squeezed through the kitchen door, arms laden with grocery bags. “Where’s everyone else?” She followed up her greeting with a question when John pushed the door shut with his toe before heading for the big kitchen table.

“Dad wanted to take D’argo to the playground and I think Aeryn wanted some alone time with Jack,” John explained, putting the bags down and starting to unpack frozen and refrigerated goods first.  “Not to say I doubt she wanted to let D’Argo out of her sights.” 

“I wonder what she wanted to talk to dad about?” Olivia mused, starting to give John a helping hand.

“Well, with those two I doubt it would be the latest fashions. Maybe she wants to ask if there’s been any good TV shows since we were here last?”

“She surprises me sometimes,” Olivia remarked as she lifted the milk and opened the fridge. “I mean, she doesn’t really seem to talk as much as she did last time, or even about last time.”

“Well, she had a pretty traumatic time just after we left here last time. The Scarrans captured her, tortured her, she’s bound to be a bit quieter about some things.”

“I know, you told me that. But it’s almost like I’m talking to a different person sometimes…” John stopped what he was doing and stared at her. “Oh, sorry, I mean she’s still obviously Aeryn, but it’s like… oh forget I ever said anything, sorry John…” Olivia tried backtracking and changing the subject, but she could see John seemed deep in thought.

“Oh, you got Rocky Road!” Olivia exclaimed, pulling out a big tub of ice cream and rushing it away to the freezer. 

“Yeah, it’s Aeryn’s favourite,” he smiled. Olivia had hoped that she would distract John with mention of ice cream, but it seemed only partially successful, and she could guess why: it brought his thoughts back to what she’d just said about Aeryn once again. And from the way he was frowning, she could see that her words had struck a nerve.

“Maybe she’s just nervous about being back here?” Olivia laid a soothing hand on John’s arm. “I mean, you have made a big point about being here under the radar, and she’s bound to have picked up on that, be a bit worried about it?”

“Yeah, it’s probably something like that,” John nodded, seeming a bit more at ease now that Olivia had given a valid reason for Aeryn’s slightly odd and uncommunicative, even for her, behaviour. “Come on sis, let’s get the rest of this stuff unpacked and get dinner on. Dad promised to get them back by six.”

@@@

A potential solution to Larraq’s many Aeryn-related problems was waiting for him when they got back to their quarters after first meal.

A red light was beeping on the data console, signifying that an encrypted message was waiting for Aeryn. 

“I wonder who wants what now?” Aeryn sighed as she settled herself in front of the console.

“Well, you’re Lieutenant Aeryn Sun now,” Larraq announced. “You’re going to have to fill her big, stompy boots.”

“I’m not a civilian, Larraq,” she took a deep breath. “I know what I have to do.”

Aeryn swiped her ident chip, put her hand in the DNA scanner and presented her eye to the iris scanner. Satisfied with her credentials, the comms system unscrambled the message and it started to play.

“Raven,” a self-confident female voice began to speak, addressing Aeryn using the codename employed for her contacts with the Kalish resistance. “I will be able to meet you as agreed to discuss our plans for the wedding. I will be at the second pick up point in seven solar days.”

“That’s her, your contact?” Larraq asked Aeryn for confirmation, “For the mission Lieutenant Sun was on when this all started. Sikozu Shani... Whatever her names are?” 

“Sikozu! I know her in my reality!” Aeryn exclaimed. Interesting. It seemed the same old people kept cropping up in both realities. Not for the first time she wondered what had happened to Scorpius and then Henta. She’d have to check some time.

“Excellent, so you will have no problem identifying her then?” Larraq probed. He hoped her answer would be yes, as he had never met the woman.

“I thought you knew her too?” Aeryn replied, putting him on the back foot slightly.

“Oh we’ve never met,” Larraq chuckled. “But I’ve seen her file.” 

“Then maybe you should go – two of us would seem excessive?” Larraq’s chuckle turned into a knowing smile. Aeryn was clearly angling to stay closer to Enstor, and Larraq knew full well why. Larraq had paid close attention to any snippets of information, learning that Crichton intended to use this version of Enstor as a waystation on his way back to his own version of the planet. Both Aeryns had told him about Crichton’s planned date to return to this reality, although, interestingly, this one had not done so very much recently. Maybe she was losing interest and wanted to stay here? But then again maybe not: she also seemed to be growing more distant from him, too.  

Well, Lieutenant Aeryn Sun would be going to rendezvous with Sikozu whether she liked it or not. It was her assignment. It was also the perfect way to keep her away from Enstor, and thus keep her here with him. And, additionally, it also had the advantage of potentially defusing any gossip that might be going around about him and Aeryn, allowing the heat to die down a bit. The only question in Larraq’s mind was whether he ought to go on the mission to meet Sikozu, too. On the one hand he had never been to any of their previous rendezvous, and he and Aeryn spending time apart might help attenuate the gossip about them a little. But on the other hand, could he really trust her not to abandon the mission and go to Enstor if he wasn’t there watching over her?

“Why us though?” Aeryn asked, completely cutting across his thoughts with an unrelated question. “I mean, why choose us to be her contacts? Originally?”

“I’m not privy to that information,” he shrugged. He really wasn’t. “But, the very fact that we weren’t involved in the Scarran war, we were right over the other side of the Peacekeeper territories, meant that we were clean faces to go undercover as her contacts... as clean as a Sebacean can be in those parts, anyhow.”

“So why don’t you go..? You’re even more unknown than me out there?” There it was again: an indication that he was no longer being included in her plans regarding recontacting Crichton.

“Oh, I’ll be going… with you,” he stated, having made up his mind that he needed to keep a close eye on her. The look of frustration that momentarily crossed her face told him that he had probably guessed correctly: if he wasn’t with her, she would surely be making straight for Enstor. “And that’s an order, Lieutenant Sun,” he stated flatly in a rare instance for him of pulling rank. There was no way he wanted to discuss his reasons with her, but, as the senior officer, he was absolutely not obliged to do so.

Aeryn stared at him, her face now a neutral, inscrutable mask. Then she turned away. He watched her carefully as she did so, catching the briefest glimpse of what he took to be a very dark look indeed.

“I’ll requisition what we need for the trip,” Larraq announced, calling after her as she walked towards the door leading out of their quarters. “You get the Marauder prepped. We leave today.” He ordered as she stomped out.

@@@

 Aeryn bit her lip, holding her tongue, not wishing to betray her thoughts or plans to Larraq. It was clear now that he was not to be trusted. He knew roughly the date and place of John’s planned return and was making no allowances for it. If anything, he seemed to be trying to place obstacles between her and her plans to rendezvous with her husband. She really didn’t want to be so far away from Enstor, especially not now. Seven days there, seven days back.... still that did leave about a weeken before John would return. That should be plenty of time.

But what if, when he did get to return, John turned around and headed straight down the wormhole again? And could she trust Larraq to allow her to travel back to Enstor in time? She had more than a few doubts on that score. She decided she needed to make her own plans. Plans that would enable her to follow John, if necessary, on her own ship. She lurked in the dark corridor close to their quarters, in the opposite direction to the one she expected Larraq to take when he left for the quartermaster to requisition kit for the trip to the Scarran border. A few microts later he stepped out into the corridor, paused for a microt, sighed, then, to her relief, headed off in the opposite direction, as she had suspected he might  Aeryn slipped from the shadows, re-entered their quarters and made for the computer terminal on the desk, keen to get started with making her own arrangements.

First there was the call back to a Lieutenant in charge of one of the Prowler “wings”. Then another call to the quartermaster in charge of the carrier’s complement of small craft. Then, lastly, once all that had been sorted out, perhaps the most important call of all to the success of her emerging plan.

“Sub-Officer Altar? This is Lieutenant Sun.” She knew that by using their ranks Altar should immediately understand that this call was important, official business, and not just about their next appointment for fluid rebalancing.

“Lieutenant Sun? How may I help you?” The tone of his voice was business like, not flirtatious. Excellent, she had been right about him. He had understood immediately that this was a formal call.

“I’ve asked your commanding officer for you to be temporarily reassigned to me for the next monen, for a special ops assignment.” She informed him. She could see him glow with pride, even over the low resolution vid link. It was an honour for someone of his limited experience to be chosen for such an assignment and he clearly knew it. “She has approved the transfer.”

“What do you need me to do, ma’am?” He asked enthusiastically.

“A number of things. First, I need you to get me something: A Leviathan transport pod. The quartermaster’s office has all the details and my authorisation. I need you to familiarise yourself with how to operate it. And I need you to take it to Enstor. Be there in one weeken and wait for me. For up to a monen, so ensure that you requisition sufficient supplies,” she added to be sure there would be minimal chance of any hitches.

“Certainly, Lieutenant, I shall look into it straight away. Will there be anything else?” He asked with just the merest hint of longing in his voice. She knew what he was asking about and it saddened her to have to deny him.

“No, I’m afraid not,” she saw his expression sink. “Not at present. I shall be leaving later today as part of this mission,” she stated by way of explanation. “You will be unlikely to hear from me again until I rendezvous with you on Enstor. Is that understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, clearly trying to stifle a hint of disappointment, to remain professional and to rekindle his enthusiasm that she had chosen him for this mission. Aeryn sympathised with him, but only to a point. Maybe she would be able to recreate with him again before John returned, but maybe not? She really liked him, after all. In some ways he reminded her of John, more so than any other Peacekeeper she could think of, even Velorek. If it wasn’t for the complications of Larraq being her commanding officer and knowing her true identity she would have been recreating solely with him by now, and not with Larraq at all. However, she needed to think about this situation like a Peacekeeper: she couldn’t afford to allow her emotions to get in the way of what she needed to do.

@@@

The rendezvous point with Sikozu was located in quite a cosmopolitan city on a planet in the lawless zone where neither Scarrans nor Peacekeepers could claim authority. Such a place was one where a pair of Sebaceans arriving in a Peacekeeper Marauder could go relatively unremarked.

“We ought to have brought a more… anonymous ship,” Aeryn complained as she set the superficially scruffy looking Marauder down on the landing pad. They had chosen it because its appearance might let it pass as one of the “freelance” vessels which had become not uncommon in this region of space since the war, taking advantage of the power vacuum to make a living on the edges of whatever law might remain. Aeryn set to work on the process of shutting off deep-space systems. Of course, being a Peacekeeper vessel, there wasn’t a lot of frivolity in the design – it would only take her a handful of macrots to put the ship into “planetary parking mode”. She was soon finishing her task.

“I agree with you Aeryn,” Larraq nodded as he busied himself gathering their kit. “But Sikozu didn’t leave us enough time to get here in anything slower.”

“Then we will have to compensate by being doubly careful. For once, you’re lucky it’s me and not your Aeryn Sun.”

“And why is that?” He asked, genuinely curious. He had an inkling that he was about to learn something new about the Alternative Aeryn and it intrigued him.

“I spent six monens serving in a counter insurgency and assassination unit. So, I know how to handle myself in this sort of scenario,” she told him, locking off the engines with her ident chip – now only her or Larraq would be able to fire up the Marauders main engines.

“Now that is interesting. And useful,” he nodded. “Maybe you should have told me this before?”

“Need to know…” she explained, almost granting him a playful wink. He nodded again. “And I didn’t know quite what this place was like, remember I’ve never been here before, even if your Aeryn has.”

“Fair enough. So, what do you recommend, Lieutenant?”

“Well, for starters, no uniforms, lots of weapons, and we keep our eyes open for surveillance.” She shrugged.

“Of course. Anything else?” He grinned. “Anything I might not have thought of?” 

“Always wear footwear that is good for running away,” she replied as she stood from the pilot’s seat. Larraq laughed heartily at that, knowing full well it was only half said in jest.

@@@

“What a shitty little room!” Larraq complained, dumping his bag on the hotel bedroom floor.

“It’s the best we could afford – the bounty on that last job is nearly all spent,” Aeryn replied, acting in their agreed cover of bounty hunters, working on the assumption that they would be under suspicion and surveillance and that everything they did and said might be being scrutinised by someone.

“Fine. Let’s get cleaned up and get some food – I heard about an interesting place three blocks from here,” Larraq responded, schucking off his jacket. “That’s if our credit still extends to dinner?”

“Oh, I think we can probably afford something,” she replied, losing her own coat. “Toss you for first use of the shower.”

“You could always toss me in the shower?” He suggested with a lascivious grin. She rolled her eyes. 

“Maybe another time. After a weeken in deep space I just fancy getting clean!” She responded.

“Suit yourself, don’t say I didn’t offer!” He grinned, watching her attentively as she shed the remainder of her clothes and sauntered off, naked, into the sanitary annex. She had been distant from him all trip, finding excuse after excuse not to recreate, and it was beginning to grate. Maybe he’d be better off letting her get to Enstor in time and exchanging her for his Aeryn after all?

@@@

Aeryn subtly nudged Larraq with her knee, then arranged her eating utensils to indicate where Sikozu could be seen. She had spotted the Kalish resistance operative on the far side of the eating house, glumly picking over a small plate of mussels. As casually as he could manage, Larraq glanced randomly around him, including in Sikozu’s direction. A short while later he gave an almost imperceptible nod to indicate that he had confirmed Aeryn’s spot. 

“I think I need to go to the sanitary alcove,” she told him, standing.

“What again?” He snorted disdainfully as she sauntered off, noting that Sikozu followed shortly behind. As casually as he could, he kept an eye on the door, just in case anyone else followed and Aeryn needed back up.

@@@

The female toilets were empty – Aeryn checked them thoroughly if briefly.  It was early and there weren’t many customers yet. Aeryn stepped into a cubicle, turned on the water taps to create back ground noise and, when Sikozu entered, joining her in the cramped cubicle without a word, she shut and locked the door.

“Well?” Aeryn arched an eyebrow, although she wondered if the shorter woman could see it. “Why the long delay?”  

The size of the cubicle meant they were in each other’s personal space, pressed together almost like recreation partners. She could smell Sikozu’s scent – like strawberries and leather and… worry. She could feel her curly red hair tickling her cheek when they moved. A limb and then a looma brushed against her arm. In close confines she seemed so small, so delicate, so… what John would call girly or feminine. Sikozu leant in closer, as though she wanted to whisper in Aeryn’s ear. Or kiss her. Aeryn considered doing so, as they might be under physical surveillance. A close clinch would enable them to whisper what they needed to say, hopefully without being heard and if anyone were watching it would explain why they were together in the cubicle.

Aeryn ran the backs of her fingers across Sikozu’s cheek then framed the Kalish’s head with both hands as the shorter woman tilted her head back, allowing a kiss. It was passionless, as Aeryn had expected, although she could still taste Sikozu’s recent meal of molluscs. Dominating her with her superior height and weight, she pressed the redhead the couple of denches back against the wall, feeling their loomas crush against each other between them. A small hand fondled Aeryn’s eema, although without any particular passion. Aeryn decided she quite liked the overall scenario, even if Sikozu seemed indifferent. But then Aeryn had been quite happy to recreate with Henta, whereas she had no idea if Sikozu had ever experienced anything similar.

 “I need to get off planet!” Sikozu hissed into Aeryn’s ear as Sikozu’s other hand stroked and gently clutched at Aeryns arm.  “Out of the sector! My contact in the resistance has been compromised.” 

That really wasn’t the Peacekeepers problem. However, Aeryn was a long way from being a normal Peacekeeper, and the alternate Sikozu was Aeryns’s sometimes-friend. Besides, the Peacekeepers in this reality might at the very least learn something to their benefit from a thorough debriefing of the Kalish.

Aeryn trailed kisses round until her mouth was nibbling at Sikozu’s ear. The red curls tickled her nose and the skin was softer and smoother than she had expected, not at all scaly to the touch.

“Landing bay kar-du-12, three arns,” Aeryn instructed, her hand now fondling Sikozu’s looma. It was small but filled her hand and was firm and  perfectly shaped. She had always suspected Sikozu had nice loomas, and now she knew. Sikozu grinned, showing an impressive set of teeth, although whether her pleasure was from Aeryn’s offer of escape or from her physical attentions, or indeed a mix of both, was hard to say.

“Don’t be late,” Sikozu breathlessly gasped, her hand now kneading Aeryn’s eema like dough.

“We won’t be,” Aeryn confirmed, taking one last feel of Sikozu’s looma then pushing herself away, towards the other wall of the cubicle. 

“My partner will be wondering where I’ve got to,” she stated, no longer whispering almost inaudibly. Her hope was that if they were under surveillance then her words would focus any spies’ attention at the hotel rather than the Marauder.  “I’m Aeryana Suung. I’m at the hotel Gravad for four days, room 531. Be there in an arn and a half…”

“What about your man?”

“I’ll ask him if he wants to watch…” Aeryn replied with a shrug and a wink. “You’re pretty enough, I reckon he’ll be more than happy…”

And so saying she unlocked the door and slipped out of the cubicle. The restroom was still empty.

@@@

“Your meal is getting cold,” Larraq teased Aeryn as she returned to their booth to find that their order had been delivered in her absence.

“I need to get something from the ship,” Aeryn remarked casually as she made herself comfortable and lifted her cutlery. “After we’ve eaten, of course. It can wait. You’re not in a hurry to get back to the hotel are you?”

Larraq shook his head and pulled a nonchalant face with his lips and set to eating his own meal. 

“What do you need to get?” He asked in an offhand manner as he popped a forkful of food into his mouth.

“I left my favourite jacket onboard,” she gave him the code they had agreed to signify an immediate, unscheduled but not headlong departure. She could see in his eyes that Larraq understood – they were unlikely to be returning to the hotel. It didn’t matter. They had no personal effects, nothing of value there. It could all be sacrificed to the success of the mission. Better that than give the impression, right after Aeryn had met with Sikozu, that they were about to leave the planet.

“How’s yours?” He asked, gesturing towards her plate with his fork. She assumed he was asking tangentially about her meeting with Sikozu. 

“Oh, fine,” she replied, trying to reply with a few subtle hints. “Perfectly edible. Although it’s a good job I got back when I did. If I’d been any later it might have gone off.” 

Larraq nodded and munched away. He hadn’t got to be a Peacekeeper Special Ops Captain by being stupid: she assumed he had interpreted her remarks in the manner intended.

@@@

“But I don’t understand where Marvin’s brain actually was, if it was the size of a planet,” Aeryn complained as they walked across the parking lot from the cinema to their car. “I mean his head was pretty much normal sized, a bit big, but so is yours, and you’ve never claimed to have a brain the size of a planet.”

“It was just a comedy, Aeryn,” John chuckled as he unlocked the car doors. An idea occurred to him. “Maybe the Magratheans had it somewhere, you know, like one of their planet building places?”

“Hmm that works,” she nodded earnestly and pulled her door open. Then she seemed to spot that John was openly smirking, bordering on laughing, staring at her. “Did I say something wrong?” She questioned. “Should I not have…”

“No, babe,” John shook his head and yanked his door open. “Don’t ever change.” He climbed into the car while Aeryn still stood, slack-mouthed outside. John leant over and called to her through her open door. “C’mon, hot stuff, get in. I’m taking you to the beach. No conundrums for you to ponder there!”

Aeryn shrugged, nodded and climbed in. 

And, as they pulled out of the lot, a large, black SUV pulled away from a nearby parking spot and followed them onto the freeway.

@@@

“Maybe she’s been detained?” Larraq opined from the copilot’s chair of the Marauder. It had been over an arn since Aeryn and the Kalish had met and there was still no sign of Sikozu. 

“Give her another arn?” Aeryn shrugged. “I haven’t come all this way just to abandon the mission for the sake of a macrot’s patience.”

“On the other hand, if we’ve been compromised, it would be unwise to return to the hotel,” Larraq pointed out.

“So we wait here,” Aeryn riposted. “Did I ever teach you a game called Rock Paper Scissors?”

“No,” Larraq frowned. “I think I’d remember if you had. Anyway, we don’t have any of that aboard.”

@@@

“I thought you said this Crichton was some sort of genius?” Larraq sighed in obvious disbelief fifteen macrots later.

“Well, that’s how he’d describe himself,” Aeryn answered with a grin. 

Just then the buzzer on the copilot’s board lit up, showing that someone was trying to open the Marauder’s main hatch. As one, the two Peacekeepers rose to their feet and unholstered their guns, making for the rear of the Marauder where the hatch was located.

As they took up positions behind the inner airlock door, Larraq turned to Aeryn. “If it’s overwhelming hostiles, I’ll try and hold them here, you get back and take off. It’s our best chance of survival.”

“Yes sir,” she acknowledged, not taking her eyes off the outer hatch. “Ready?”

“Do it,” he nodded. Aeryn opened the outer hatch. 

It was dark outside.

A figure stepped into the airlock.

A slight, female figure, dressed in orange and with small knots of ringleted hair dotting her skull. She seemed nervous, stressed even, but otherwise unharmed and alone. Aeryn closed the outer hatch and, when it was shut, opened the inner one.

Sikozu locked eyes on Aeryn and a tonne of worry seemed to drop from her shoulders. 

“I’m not sure, but I might have been followed, a tail, but they’ll be calling in help,” Sikozu informed Aeryn in a breathless, worried tone.

“Get us out of here,” Larraq ordered his pilot. “I’ll deal with our visitor.” 

“Sikozu, do what the Captain tells you,” Aeryn told Sikozu as she nodded in understanding. A microt later she was gone, heading for the flight deck.

@@@

The Marauder shook and shuddered. It felt to Sikozu like they were breaking atmosphere and heading out into space. Good. It had been a close thing.

“Help yourself to a drink,” Larraq invited, pointing out where they were and making himself comfortable, leaning against a counter.

Sikozu felt Larraq’s eyes watching her every move. Was it lust, or suspicion?  

She didn’t usually drink, but on this occasion  she made an exception, partly to celebrate her escape, partly to steady her nerves. She poured herself a small glass of razlak and, senses bristling under his unwavering stare, sauntered back to sit opposite the Captain in the Marauder’s tiny messroom. “I suppose you’ll want to debrief me?” She looked him in the eye with an arrogant pout.

Larraq surprised her by laughing. She frowned questioningly and began to nervously unbraid the tight bunches of her hair, allowing it to fall freely around her head as each knot was untied. He suppressed his laughter and grew more serious.

“Aeryn’s been keeping secrets from me,” Larraq intimated, leaning in until their faces were just denches apart.

“Do you think she’s been turned, that she’s a Scarran agent?” Sikozu could feel her cheeks flushing, a frisson of fear shooting through her. “Or a bioloid?” She added sotto voce, moving on to releasing another of her tight bunches of hair. Aeryn did seem a bit different to how she remembered her. What if this was all one gigantic and elaborate trap?

“Nothing like that,” Larraq chuckled with a smug smile, snagging one of her cascading curls and wrapping it around his finger. “She didn’t tell me how pretty you were.” Oh! So that was it, was it? Sikozu felt the tension leave her body, but not the adrenaline rush that had accompanied her rescue and her recent fears about Aeryn and Larraq.

“Well, she didn’t tell me how handsome you are, so we’re equal,” she countered with a flirtatious smirk. Well, he was, and she was pretty sure he knew it, the fekkik. Her grin turned to a gasp as he tugged on her ringlet, sharply enough to cause a jolt of pain in her scalp.

“Oh!” She quivered, feeling a frisson of fearful excitement. “What was that for?”

“Just because,” Larraq arched an eyebrow. “I’m afraid, before we go any further, I’m going to need to search you for weapons, explosives, tracking devices…” Larraq grinned. “So if you wouldn’t mind standing up?” He added, taking hold of her forearms before fully standing himself and gently lifting her to her feet. “And if you could just hold still?”

Sikozu shivered at his touch as his hands skimmed across her arms, up to her bare shoulders, down her nearly bare back, that last move pulling him even closer into her personal space until she could feel other parts of him brushing against her, feel his breath on her forehead, smell his leathery, male scent. She bit her lip as his hands stoked across her eema.

“It’s a bit stiff,” she ventured.

“Huh?” He gave an amused snort. “So it is.” He winked at her.

“My skirt. It’s a bit stiff. If you need to conduct an effective search…?”

“Yes. I’m going to have to...” he tugged one of the straps of her midriff-bearing bra-like top off of her left shoulder. She raised an eyebrow and smirked but didn’t protest.  “Take this stuff…” he tugged the strap off of her other shoulder. “Off.” He concluded. She gave an open-mouthed smile. Well, why not? He was very handsome.

“I can do that without your help,” she chided him, stepping back and leaning against a counter, moving out of his personal space. Larraq himself leant back and shrugged. Maybe he thought she was giving him the brush off? She propped up a booted foot between his thighs. “But if you need to search me, you could help me with my boots,” she added. He snorted in amusement as both his hands fell to the task, although his eyes never left her face. Well, not until she reached behind her, unclasped her top and peeled it off. 

His face lit up in happy appreciation. It felt nice to be appreciated.

“I was wondering if those markings covered all of your loomas,” he laughed, staring unapologetically and unrelentingly at her chest as he pulled off her boot. 

“Well, now you know.” She switched the leg propped up between his thighs. She huffed in faux indignation and began to unfasten her waistband. The turbulence shaking the Marauder was diminishing rapidly now – Sikozu guessed that they were in space. 

“Yeah, you carry on getting you skirt and leggings off, while I check your boots and that top for tracers, weapons, whatever,” Larraq told her, pulling her second boot off and, to her annoyance, actually starting to give it a thorough examination, including pulling some sort of scanner out of somewhere to run over it!

Sikozu could scarcely believe it. The humiliation! She stood in the mess room totally naked as Larraq actually genuinely checked her outfit! “Can I put my clothes back on when you’re done?” She snarled, hands on hips. She’d thought this was a playful seduction, not a thorough search!

He looked up from scanning her skirt, the last item in the little pile of orange clothes on the mess room table. “Not till I’m happy you’re not hiding anything from me,” he grinned, standing and backing her up against the wall. “You could be hiding anything…” his hands cupped her breasts. “In these loomas…” he added as he began to gently squeeze them.

“That’s not the only place I could be hiding something!” Sikozu grinned happily as things started to return to what she had expected.

@@@

Aeryn brushed a stray lock of wind-blown hair from her eyes and snuggled closer in to John Crichton’s side, revelling in the way his body heat chased away the chill of the evening and the way his arm wrapped comfortingly around her shoulder.

“So, do you like it?” John asked. She guessed he was talking about the way the sun was setting below the horizon, seeming to boil away as it slowly vanished in a dark orange glow.

“You were right, John. It really is beautiful,” she confirmed, leaning her head against his shoulder and cheek. It had been a wonderful day, a wonderful weeken. John had started it by telling her he wanted to make it up to her for last time. She hadn’t questioned the details, having simply allowed him to take her on what he had termed a romantic tour of some of his favourite places.

She felt him kiss the top of her head. 

“We should get back.” She suggested. “D’Argo.” She really felt she was getting the hang of this being a mother business.

“Livy said he was fine on the phone. He’ll be asleep by now,” John replied. “So there’s no hurry. Let’s just hang on till the sun is gone?”

“Mmm, fine,” she agreed, wriggling even closer, watching with him as the sun slowly continued to go down.

And neither of them noticed the dark SUV, in the nearby car park, or the two shadowy figures within, watching them attentively with their long lens camera and matching microphone.

@@@

Aeryn eased back on the thrusters and began to activate the hetch drive. On the monitor she could see the planet dropping away behind them rapidly. The tactical board showed no vessels in pursuit. So far so good. 

She’d better tell Larraq how they were doing, he’d want to know. Internal motion sensors showed two life forms in the mess. It must be Larraq and Sikozu.

Satisfied that the hetch drive was warming up nicely, she scooted across to the copilots position and activated the Vidcom link to the mess.

HOLY FRELLING DREN! 

Aeryn swallowed the greeting she had been about to make as she took in the sight of Larraq’s naked buttocks pistoning backwards and forwards. She noted absently that he was still wearing his shirt. Which put him ahead of Sikozu, who was wearing nothing. It was hard to tell from behind, and with Larraq’s much larger frame impeding the view, but she seemed to be naked, bent forwards, across the mess table, and was gasping and squealing like she’d never been frelled from behind by a big, strapping handsome Peacekeeper Captain before.

Perhaps she hadn’t?

Well, she certainly seemed willing to educate herself.

Part of Aeryn wanted to look away, but part of her was fascinated. So, those scales did go all the way down her loomas? Well, at least it made it easier for her to sever any residual emotional attachment to Larraq. And although they did look and sound as good as any couple could under the circumstances, she made a mental note to give the table, and all the surfaces in the mess, a good clean before eating in there again.

Sikozu snarled out her release, and a microt later Larraq joined her with a long, sighing groan. Aeryn gave them a few microts for the sake of decency then coughed to announce herself.

“Um, Captain Larraq?” He turned his head to look at the monitor as best he could. He was completely unabashed, despite still being buried balls-deep in Sikozu. He was behaving as any experienced Peacekeeper would be. Sikozu on the other hand was squirming with obvious embarrassment. “I thought you’d want to know that we’ve successfully left orbit and I’m about to engage the hetch drive. No sign of any pursuit.”

“Good job, Lieutenant,” Larraq replied calmly while Sikozu blushed a vivid shade of orange from her head to her toes.

“Thank you, sir. Flight deck out.” Aeryn answered, snapping off the comms channel with a gigantic smirk.


	6. Chapter Six

**Chapter 6**

 

 “Anything else you really want to do before we go home?” John asked, helping Aeryn move her mantle of raven hair off her shoulders so that his massaging hands could rub her entire back unimpeded.

“Mmm. Spend time with family,” she rumbled contentedly beneath his oil-lubricated hands as he took his time to work the knots out of her impossibly long back. “Maybe go shopping…. Chocolate… Dee veedeys… maybe a few surprises for later?” 

“What, something sexy like… a Colt 45?” She could feel John chuckling, not surprising really as he was straddling her thighs, weight split between his knees on the bed, his thighs and buttocks on her thighs and his hands on her back.

“Of course,” she sniffed. “Get me one of those and I might get you some of that frell-wear you like so much.” She felt his cock twitch against her eema crack at that remark and grinned, then gasped as John’s capable hands found and unknotted a particularly tight spot. “I know how much you like to wear the leggings,” she teased him.

Never in her life had anyone but John Crichton given her a half-arn back rub. Frell, even Velorek had only ever spent a few minutes working on her shoulders and that, she suspected, simply as a means of loosening her up more generally. Over the near two monens of her assignment she had come to realise with increasing clarity that she didn’t want it to end. She loved her life as a Peacekeeper, and Larraq was an enjoyable frell, even if cycles of familiarity had led to a degree of boredom, but this life with John Crichton was more than she had ever imagined. 

He had moved on to the small of her back now, a short prelude to his hands moving on to her eema cheeks. It felt wonderful, part relaxing, part…. What was the word John would use? Sensual? Erotic?

They’d be going back through the wormhole in another couple of weekens. It was her duty as a Peacekeeper to deliver her report: wormholes were real, alternate realities were real, and both had great military potential, but to all practical purposes there was little more that she could say. Crichton alone seemed to possess the knowledge to navigate them, and from the tentative conversations she had had with him on the subject, he seemed unable to communicate the significant aspects to anyone.

But once she had delivered that report, she wanted More. With careful observation she had grown increasingly confident in her role as Aeryn Sun-Crichton. If Crichton hadn’t uncovered the truth by now, it was growing increasingly unlikely that he ever would. There were aspects of the role that she found problematic, the biggest one being the mother of the child, D’Argo, but she was confident she could adapt and manage. 

She resolved to requisition the Other Aeryn Sun’s life, if she could. She didn’t feel guilt – it wasn’t the Peacekeeper way. Besides, she was Aeryn Sun, so wasn’t it her life in a way anyway?

Her hand reached back, long fingers seeking, finding and encircling his shaft. It was hot and hard. Good. She liked that.

“You sure you wanna prime the cannon?” She heard him ask in his ridiculously bizarre yet interesting argot. She nodded her head.

“Back off a few denches,” she drawled, reluctantly releasing her grip. As he complied she arched her eema upwards, grabbing a pair of pillows and sliding them under her belly before settling back down across them, knees parted. She felt disinclined to disrupt the feeling of relaxation his back rub had given her and smiled to herself with satisfaction as he took the hint, shuffling on his knees between her legs until she could feel his tip stroking up and down against her labia, teasing her, making sure she was ready. Oh, she felt ready alright. Fortunately she didn’t need to tell John that. He seemed to have gotten the message from how she was presenting to him and how wet she was.

Lieutenant Aeryn Sun let out a satisfied half groan half sigh as she felt John Crichton slide into her, a most gratifying, stretching and filling sensation from this angle. 

“Hmm, John, yes, frell me like that,” she sighed.

“Yeah baby, yeah! I’m frellin’!” He remarked in his characteristically ridiculous manner. Not that she objected in the least. It was all part of his odd charm.

All this sex with an unclassified alien life form probably made her irreversibly contaminated, she sniggered gently as he set up a rhythm. But not half as contaminated as she was going to be when he…. Cholak! The angle was tight and felt so good that she felt him coming already, his hot seed gushing deep inside her. Not that she minded, because, for the same reasons, she was there too.

“Yes!” she screamed out her climax in synchrony with his. She could definitely see a lot more of this sort of contamination in her future.

@@@

“Larraq! Sikozu! Get to the flight deck, I think we’ve got company!” Aeryn announced on ship-wide comms. On the tactical panel she could see two red dots, each signifying a potentially hostile vessel, on trajectories that were clearly converging on their own. Aeryn had a strong suspicion that they were not intending to talk to them about new investment opportunities.

“What have we got, Lieutenant?” Larraq demanded, rushing onto the deck, still securing his shirt and trousers, but as quick to respond to her hail as Aeryn would have expected of a Black Ghost Captain.

“Two unidentified vessels converging on us in a pincer formation at Hetch eight,” she informed him, busy over her instruments. 

“Can we outrun them?” He asked, throwing himself into the seat at the secondary console.

“Only one of them.” Their top speed was only Hetch seven, after all.

“Can we evade them?”

“Only...”

“One of them... Yeah, I get it,” Larraq laughed humourlessly. “Recommendations?”

“Odds against one at a time are better than our odds against them both. If we head straight towards that one it will buy us the most time and put us closest to a command carrier when we’re done.”

“If we’re done,” Larraq commented blackly. Aeryn shrugged. What other options did they have? “Fine, do it Lieutenant,” Larraq ordered. “How long do we have?”

“Eight macrots till they’re in weapons range of us. Hard to say about the reverse. If they’re Strykers, it will be about the same.”

“My money is on a Stryker,” Larraq supplied as Sikozu entered, putting some of her curls up into spikes, just like the Sikozu in Aeryn’s universe had had a habit of doing at inappropriate moments. “Going at Hetch Eight.”

“A Stryker?” Sikozu almost gasped, joining them. “But that makes no sense! I’m not worth...”

“It would appear that the Scarran Imperium would beg to differ,” Aeryn remarked dryly, pushing the engines till they screamed in protest. 

“Sikozu Shanu,” Larraq spun his chair to address her face to face as she slumped into a third seat. “You have just over six macrots to tell us anything that might help us survive this encounter.” She shook her head.

“I... I don’t know!” Sikozu protested. “I don’t know anything!”

“Fine, then shut up, strap yourself in and keep out of my way!” Aeryn snapped back, hands flying across consoles as she activated tactical and weapons systems.

“I have a positive identification!” Larraq informed her. “It’s a Stryker.” 

“Good!” Aeryn snarled. “Because I’m going to turn that freller into scrap metal!” So saying she throttled back, launched a tight cluster of counter measure drones and gently tapped a directional thruster for a couple of microts, barrel rolling the Marauder a few degrees off of its previous trajectory.

“Frell, there’s two of them now, they were close together!” Larraq informed her. They both knew that that tiny fact shifted the odds from their favour into the Scarrans’ favour.

“All systems on standby, I want us to be as invisible as possible to their sensors!” Aeryn barked at Larraq.

“You’ve got it!” Larraq called back with a laugh, powering down systems by the handful. “That’s my girl!”

“What’s she doing!? Without our engines and weapons systems powered up we can’t possibly...!” Sikozu seemed close to panic.

“Aeryn’s the finest combat Pilot in the Peacekeepers!” Larraq boasted with a grin. “Watch and learn!”

“Two hundred microts till they’re in weapons range of the drones!” Aeryn announced. Larraq nodded, like Aeryn lapsing into studious silence as they waited for the critical moment to arise.

“Looks like they’re taking the bait,” Larraq spoke softly, as though not wanting to jinx Aeryn’s plan. The Scarrans were entirely focussed on the drone cloud, not noticing the passively floating Marauder growing ever closer to them.

“They won’t be fooled for long. I reckon we have time for one salvo.”

“How do you want to play it?”

“All on the lead ship. Maximise our chance of evening the odds. On my mark you shoot, I’ll bring us back up to speed and close on the second ship.”

“Agreed,” Larraq responded, readying the targeting systems for the pulse weapons.

“They’re doing ranging shots...  Another thirty microts tops!” Aeryn informed him. A silence fell over the Marauder’s cockpit, heavy with anticipation.

“And... that’s it! They’re in range and firing!” Aeryn announced. “Three! Two! One!”

The marauder shook from the twin shocks of the weapons systems unleashing a barrage upon the lead Stryker while the Marauder’s main engines burst back into life. Not even waiting to check whether their barrage had hit, far less damaged or destroyed the lead Stryker, Aeryn bore down on the second Scarran ship, weapons kicking and bucking, making the Marauder shake like a cheap fun fair ride on the way. But the second ship had recovered fast: before their second salvo hit home, a vengeful barrage was already heading their way.

“Brace for impact!” Aeryn shouted as fireworks exploded across the Marauders armoured hull. A second shock hit them as the lead Stryker exploded in a fireball.

“Looks like our forward armour is holding!” Larraq announced, just as their own second salvo burst against the second Stryker. “Just!”

“I wish you hadn’t said that!” Aeryn snarled as the two craft danced around each other, trying to get the right angle for a killing blow. “There!” She announced triumphantly, unleashing a barrage of weapons fire on the Stryker at close range. 

The Scarran ship bloomed into a white, red and orange fireball, debris flying off in all directions. However, they were so close that they could not avoid being enveloped in the explosion. The Marauder felt as though it had been physically upended, and everyone would have been thrown from their seats had they not been strapped in. The lights flickered and went out - a microt later the dim, red emergency lights cut in to reveal a stark and desperate scene.

“We’ve lost hetch drive... Pulse canon... The Hammon storage area is compromised!” Larraq listed the damage report.

“Those are the least of our worries,” Aeryn responded dryly. “The other Stryker will be with us in... about an arn. What looks repairable from your list? And don’t say the storage room!”

“I’m not sure...”

“Then I’ll go take a look,” she sighed, unstrapping herself and heading for the door. “See what you can do here while I’m gone.”

@@@

“John, Aeryn, can you come here a minute?” Jack asked as he stepped into the living room from the garage. John appeared from the kitchen a few seconds later, Aeryn tagging along a few steps behind, straightening her shirt as she went. Jack arched an eyebrow but did not remark on it. Instead he beckoned them over to where he stood, just to the side of the main window. 

“There’s been a Ute parked out in the street for the last couple of hours,” Jack intimated motioning through the curtains.

“So?” John replied. 

“With two guys in it.”

“Ah...” John grimaced. Aeryn peered through the curtains, face like thunder. “Spooks or reporters?”

“Either way, does it matter?” Jack asked. “Someone suspects you’re back, and one way or another it’s going to get messy...”

“We should deal with them,” Aeryn muttered darkly.

“No babe, it wouldn’t help, just make matters worse.” Jack was glad John had put her off. He could guess all sorts of things Aeryn might have had in mind, and all of them involved violence.

“So, what’s your plan?” Jack asked.

John sighed and shook his head. “We need to go. Soon as possible. Sorry dad.”

“Well...” Jack sighed. “I suppose you were off in a week anyway?” He continued, trying to make the best of a bad situation.

“Don’t worry dad. Now we know how to do it, we can be back. Once these bastards have crawled back under whatever they came from.”

“I’ll help you get your stuff together,” Jack sighed.  “While we think about how to get you away safely.”

@@@

“What have we got?” Aeryn asked as she returned to the bridge, grimy and dirty after half an arn in the smouldering depths of the Marauder.

“The good news is there’s a patrol out from a nearby carrier, will be with us in forty macrots,” Larraq told her.

“And the bad news?”

“The Stryker will be with us in thirty. So what can you offer, lieutenant?”

“The hetch drive is dead, but I have the pulse cannons back on line, plus we have thrusters, missiles...”

“So do you have a plan?”

“We play dead, hope they don’t shoot first, and hit them with everything we have.”

“And as a contingency plan?”

“I won’t be taken alive,” Aeryn stated grimly, unholstering and checking her pulse pistol, before laying it on the console in front of her. This time there would be no Crichton to rescue her, after all.

@@@

“That’s the last of the bags,” John confirmed, adding a fourth large holdall to the pile by the door. “Anyone got any bright ideas how we get around Huey and Luey?”

“Why don’t I just shoot them?” Aeryn suggested, not for the first time.

“Aeryn, honeeeey,” John admonished her. She scowled back at him.

“Well, maybe she’s not far off?” Jack suggested, ever the peacemaker.

“Huh?” John frowned.

“Look, I have an air rifle, Aeryn’s a good shot, isnt she? Maybe she could sneakily take out their tyres?” Jack explained.

“A rifle that fires air?” Aeryn furrowed her brow. “What... how?”

“It’s just called that, babe,” John explained. “It fires little metal pellets, but it uses air as a propellant and it’s pretty quiet. Puncture their tyres and they probably wouldn’t have a clue till they drove off.”

“Our bedroom should give a good position for me to shoot from,” Aeryn stated.

“John, you show her the rifle, I’ll get the bags loaded in my SUV,” Jack confirmed. “Join me when you’re ready.”

@@@

“Can you get a bead on their tyres, babe?” John whispered, although there was clearly no need to do so. The mysterious black SUV and its two occupants were maybe 100 yards away, with their windows shut.

“I still don’t understand why I don’t just...” Aeryn grumbled.

“Because we don’t know who they are or why they’re here. And because they aren’t a threat to us, babe,” John sighed. “If they do actually threaten us, then fine, go ahead.”

“I can get three of their tyres,” Aeryn replied, mollified for now and accepting John’s explanation. After two monens, she had determined that it was what she reckoned the other her might do. “Shall I take the first shot?”

“Go ahead, babe,” John confirmed. There was a soft, hissing crack. Aeryn immediately set about reloading, just as John had shown her a few minutes previously, and 20 microts later she took her second shot, then another 20 microts later, her third.

“That’s it,” Aeryn announced. “Shall I fetch D’Argo from the crib or do you want...”

“I’ll get him, babe. Cross fingers, but we might need your shooting skills again before long.”

As John, Aeryn and D’Argo joined Jack in his SUV, John noted that the two stooges seemed to be preparing to follow, and as Jack pulled out and started to drive down the street, the black Ute began to move. 

Only to come to a halt on three flat tyres before it passed the drive to Jack’s house.

“YES!” John crowed as Jack turned the corner, cutting off his view of the two fuming men hurrying from their car and staring in disbelief at their wheels.

“I’m gonna take a bit of a funny route for the first couple of miles,” Jack announced. “To make sure they haven’t got friends stepping in to take over from them.”

John nodded. “And if they do?” 

“If they do? We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it!” Jack replied.

@@@

“This is as far as you’ll be able to drive,” John announced. They were a quarter mile down the rough, everglade track. There had been no sign of any further tails, much to everyone’s relief.

“Fine,” Jack replied, killing the ignition and pulling on the parking brake. “I’ll give you a hand with the bags,” he sighed.

“Hey, dad. Don’t worry. We’ll be back,” John soothed as they all climbed out and he popped the tailgate. “Find out, if you can, who those guys were, and be ready to take a vacation... I hear the country north of Vancouver is very nice.” John winked.

“Me and the girls will be ready,” Jack grinned back, hoisting one of the holdalls out of the trunk. “Till then, you take care of your family, huh?”

John grinned back and nodded. “You can count on it, dad.”

@@@

The tension on the Marauder’s bridge was as thick as fog as the Stryker made its final approach. Aeryn watched it visually, having powered off their sensors to increase the impression that they were drifting, a wreck. “Just a little further over... please...” she muttered as the Stryker came teasingly close to entering her fire zone. Her hand hovered over the controls to unleash her weapons.

“They’re about to fire!” Larraq shouted. “Going for the kill”

“Just another microt!” Aeryn hissed.

“Quickly, do something!” Sikozu panicked.

The Stryker’s weapons systems flared into life. Aeryn hammered on her own fire control panel. A torrent of unimaginable firepower was unleashed in both directions.

“Have we got...!” Larraq started to speak, but Aeryn heard no more as her panel exploded in a cascade of sparks, flames and fragments of metal as one of the Scarran weapons impacted directly in front of her station.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Chapter 7**

 

“She seems to be coming around now,” Aeryn thought she heard a distant, unfamiliar Sebacean voice remark. She felt heavy, groggy, she seemed to be lying down, although it was hard to be sure in her current state. Unpleasant memories of her imprisonment at the hands of Jenek set her on edge, making her adrenaline flow.  She forced her eyes open. Bright lights. Scarrans didn’t like bright lights, she was pretty sure. 

A Peacekeeper med bay resolved into focus, with two medtechs, one male, one female, fussing over her. 

“Welcome back, Lieutenant Sun, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that your injuries were superficial,” the Med Tech told her. 

“Concussion, a few light burns, one finger partially severed, but we’ve reattached it and it’s almost healed,” the second tech commented.

“Fabulous,” Aeryn responded dryly. “How long have I been…?” 

“Two solar days, I understand,” the female tech supplied. “You and the others were lucky that patrol was so close.” Larraq! Sikozu! Memories came back to her of the final few seconds on the Marauder.

“And the other two?” She demanded to know.

“As far as I know, they’re fine. Captain Larraq is helping our intelligence people debrief the Kalish.”

“So I’m free to go?” She stated, trying and failing to sit up. Frell. She still seemed to be under the influence of some sort of sedative.

“Not for an arm or so.” The male tech chuckled and shook his head, taking a step away from Aeryn and turning to talk to the female tech. “Is that the long-acting formulation?”

“Yes. It’ll be active in her system for about three weekens.” the female replied, handing the male something.

“What’s that?” Aeryn demanded as the male pressed a hypospray to Aeryn’s upper arm. He pretty much ignored her, save for flashing her what he probably thought was a reassuring smile. She felt the brief buzz of something being injected into her and shuddered at another unwanted Scarran memory.

“Policy,” the female stated, looking a little evasive and nervous. “High Command make the rules, we just follow them.”

“Huh? Policy?” Aeryn asked, suspicious now, wondering what could be making the tech so nervous. “What are you talking about?”

“Well...” the female swallowed hard, obviously not wanting to have this conversation. “When you were brought in we did a full medical, looking for injuries. Our scans showed you are carrying a fertilized embryo.” 

Oh frell! Aeryn felt her blood run cold. Still, it was almost certainly John’s. It wasn’t like she’d frelled Larraq or Altar long enough to...

“It seems your contraceptive implant expired… cycles ago,” the male added. “Which is very odd as our records show it was last checked only eight monens ago…”

“Did… did your scans reveal anything else?” Aeryn interrupted. “Any genetic abnormalities? Anything I should know about?” She needed to know it was John’s.

“Pure bred Sebacean.” The male stated, smiling as though that news should make her happy. “Both of them.”

“BOTH!” Aeryn snarled. This couldn’t be happening.

“Yes, one by Captain Larraq, the other Sub-Officer Darrel. Excellent choices of sires, Lieutenant, fully in line with breeding policy.”

“Breeding policy?” Aeryn’s heart sank further.

“High Command will be very pleased, you’ll probably get a commendation.”

Holy dren! Still, at least, they were in stasis, John need never know. The male tech began running a scanner over her abdomen.

“Well, fine, but leave them in stasis, I’m too busy…” Aeryn half demanded, half begged. Then she could deal with this in her own time, in her own way.

“Ma’am, you know current policy, after the war? All viable pregnancies must be released,” the female stated, fussing over her on the other side of the bed to the male.

“Yes, but, Im BUSY. Maybe in six monens when…”

“Sorry, I don’t think you understand. Policy since the war requires that we release any pregnancy from stasis before we tell the mother.” Before they tell the mother? Aeryn’s blood ran cold. They’d already told her, which could only mean...” In order to prevent… disputes. Obviously, you can only incubate one foetus at a time, but that hypospray…” the male med tech checked his scanner.  “The first embryo is already released! It’s Larraq’s offspring.”

“Frell no!” Aeryn groaned in despair as she slumped deeper against the med bed, her whole body feeling like it was turning to jelly. In about ten days John would be returning through the wormhole. In four days she would be very visibly pregnant with Larraq’s child! She banged her head back against the bed in frustration. In ten she would be a mother!

@@@

Left, right, up, down. Lieutenant Sun watched bemused yet fascinated as, for the second time in as many monens, John Crichton piloted through the wormhole system.

They were headed back towards her reality. However, John had made it clear that this time he planned not to tarry there and risk further encounters with her people. He planned on heading straight back down another wormhole, back to his own reality.

Lieutenant Sun saw it as her last duty as a Peacekeeper in that reality to delay him long enough to deliver her report on the whole wormhole and alternate reality business. A small remote control switch nestled in the palm of her hand. When she threw it, the pods primary inertial stabiliser system should short circuit. Easy enough to fix, but John surely wouldn’t risk flying into another wormhole until it was done.

Down, up, left, right. An electric blue maelstrom swirled past. And then, there they were, in normal space, high above what looked like Enstor.

Lieutenant Sun flicked the switch and the lights on the pod flickered and then went out.

@@@

Free and flying in a requisitioned Prowler! Larraq probably wouldn’t even notice she was gone – he was probably still so busy with Sikozu. Aeryn subconsciously checked the newly acquired stun gun strapped to her thigh and then opened the comms channel.

“Sub Officer Altar?” She hailed once, twice, three times over ten macrots. Her concern grew that he did not answer. Where was he? And did he have the transport pod she had ordered him to get. Eight arns to Enstor and another week till John was due to return. She mustn’t panic!

“Aeryn…? Lieutenant Sun?” He answered. Her spirits lifted a little at the sound of his voice. “Sorry, I was busy.”

“Busy?” She laughed. “What, at the waste receptacle?”

“Ummm, no, not exactly. There was some sort of spatial anomaly… a transport pod came through!”

Oh frell! John was early! 

“Altar, where is he… it… the pod now?” She demanded insistently.  What if he just turned around and left, while Aeryn was still arns away? It didn’t bear thinking about!

“Umm… it was in orbit for a few microts, then headed down to land.” Aeryn breathed a sigh of relief. If he had gone down to the planet, that bought her time. Hopefully all the time she needed. She pushed the Prowler’s engines to full throttle. 

“Altar, listen to me carefully. You have to keep a close eye on that transport pod. It’s why we are here. But you are not to contact them without speaking to me first, understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied. He was a good one, this Altar. If things had been different and she wasn’t married to John…

“And if they make any move to leave the planet you are to contact me at once for instructions!”

“Certainly ma’am… will I be seeing you soon?” Was that a hint of longing she could hear in his voice?

“I’ll be there in a few arns,” she told him. She knew that wasn’t what he meant, but she couldn’t offer him any more, not now her thoughts were focussed on John and D’Argo and their imminent and long hoped-for reunion. “Aeryn out.”

“Fly safe!” She heard him wish her just as she toggled the comms off.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Chapter 8**

 

Aeryn Sun dipped the nose of her Prowler and guided it lower, towards the Enstor spaceport, where, two monens ago, her exile from John and D’Argo had begun. As she skimmed low across the spaceport, towards her designated landing spot, she spotted and took note of the location of a Leviathan transport pod, the only one she could see. 

Altar had not alerted her to any preparations they might be making to leave. The pod was still there. She looked at her belly, already swollen with the unlooked-for offspring of a man she did not love, no longer even particularly liked. She had time, time to land, find a diagnosan and make a special purchase. Something which would enable her to reunite with John without awkward questions, and be a fitting repayment to her doppelgänger for the two stolen monens of her life.

She set the Prowler down, climbed out, and headed off into town with as much haste as she could manage.

@@@

John stared at the exposed innards of the transport pod’s complicated central processor. 

“Hey D’Argo, just a couple more things to fix, but daddy needs to check a couple of circuits on the flight deck first,” he told his son. D’Argo didn’t really care. He was busy playing with his toy dinosaurs. John walked across the pod’s rear chamber and tried the door. It was shut. He fiddled a bit. No, it was locked. The door to the pod’s flight deck was locked! Why would Aeryn have locked the door? 

John frowned and was about to comm her when he realised that flickering lights on the central processor were indicating that a long-distance comms channel was open

John knew he shouldn’t eavesdrop, but he was curious to know why Aeryn would want to lock the flight deck door to have a private conversation. It was a relatively simple job for him to splice a couple of circuits so that he could eavesdrop on the communication.

What he heard rocked him to his core and half made him wish that he had let sleeping dogs lie.

“Larraq? Where are you? This is Aeryn Sun. Lieutenant Sun, the real one.” What the frell? That was coming from the pod, this pod! Surely not!? “I’m back, on Enstor.”

No! No! Frell, no, this couldn’t be true! It couldn’t be happening!

A familiar voice crackled over the comms in reply. Well, sort of familiar. It had been around six years since he’d heard it. But he instantly recognised the tones of the first man that he had deliberately killed.

“I’m in a Marauder, I’m about an arn away. Be careful, the alternate Aeryn might be on planet with you – she requisitioned a Prowler and was headed there. I take it you are responsible for the pod landing? His Aeryn was scared he would just turn around and head down the wormhole back home.”

“I had to. I needed to make my report. But what the frell are you doing here?” John still couldn’t quite process the full implications: surely the Aeryn he’d spent the last two months with could not have NOT been his Aeryn? And surely his Aeryn couldn’t have been marooned here for that time? It was just too much to take in.

“Well, she’s here to try to get back with Crichton, I’m here because both of you are.” Larraq replied. With each new word they seemed to be confirming his deepest fears and suspicions, making his blood run cold.

“And why is that?”

“Because our mission parameters are at variance with what she wants.” Too right, John could well imagine that that would be true! But when had the switch happened? When they were last here, he had uncovered the Lieutenant, but then had told her he had seen through her and allowed her her freedom. That must have, somehow, been when she had got the scar and the ring, and tricked him into believing, for the second time, that she was his Aeryn Sun.

“My cover is still intact,” John felt sick at Lieutenant Sun’s words, implying as they did that he had been taken for a ride, in every conceivable way, for two whole months. Of course she had had an accomplice before, and had one again now, probably the same one: Larraq!  “What risk is she?”

“I said, she wants to get back with Crichton,” John cheered at that news. Well, by hook or by crook he was also determined to make that happen.

“That would compromise my mission,” Lieutenant Sun replied. John realised that, unlike the last time they were all here, he would be wisest not to confront her, to tell her he was on to her. That way he could pursue his plans surreptitiously.

“Yeah, but she should be visibly pregnant,” Larraq dropped a bombshell. “Got injured a few days ago and the techs released a stasis pregnancy,” John was genuinely shocked, but soon rallied. Of course, it must have been his child and she’d been pregnant for a while. “We might be able to use that. I know she’s scared that Crichton will reject her – he’s a jealous man, apparently.”

“So I’ve gathered,” Aeryn snorted. John half wanted to snap off the comms, but he couldn’t. He knew he just had to hear this conversation through, to gain all the knowledge that he could. “So who is the father?” Oh frell no, don’t let Larraq say…

“She hasn’t said – could be anyone, she’s an absolute tralk –  the father could be me, half the cadets on the carrier, even Crichton,” the lying bastard! Why would he say such horrible things?

“Good, we can use that. Because I plan to stay with Crichton,” Lieutenant Sun announced. Oh, hell no! No, lady, that won’t be happening John resolved!

“Are you deserting, Lieutenant Sun?”

“Look on it as I’m continuing my mission. Wormholes are real but appear to be effectively unnavigable and are impossible to traverse safely in Peacekeeper ships. We need a lot more research. Look on me choosing to stay undercover as me doing my duty to conduct some of that research.”

“So why did you sabotage the pod?” Larraq asked. Yes, not that John was complaining, but why tarry here if she didn’t plan to stay?

“To report in. Which I’ve pretty much done. Comm me when you are down and we can arrange for me to give you my full report, if we can.”

“Will do.”

"Fine. Look, I ought to go before Crichton gets suspicious. Lieutenant Sun Out.”

As John stood there, staring at the panel in a state of stunned shock, Lieutenant Sun stepped through the door from the main chamber.

“How are the repairs going, John?” She greeted him with a kiss. He struggled not to let his feelings show, avoiding looking at her, returned the kiss as platonically as he could manage.

“Umm babe, sorry, the pod is a bit broken... I need to get a part,” He told her, playing for time and space to think and plan his next move. “I’ll take the sprout, you look after the pod. And keep an eye out for any Peacekeeper patrols!”

“You too!” She told him as he grabbed his things and his son and headed for the door. “We don’t want to go through all that again!”

John quickly made his way towards the parts depot. He couldn’t believe what he’d heard! Somehow he had been double crossed. He had abandoned his Aeryn in this reality for two monens! Pregnant or not, whoever the father was, not that he could believe it wasn’t him, she was his Aeryn. He took Larraq’s words about who the father might be as locker room boasting - John had no idea of what she had gone through in the last few weeks – she had presumably had to pretend to be the Aeryn who had been with him in order to keep her liberty! He could forgive her even if she had slept around to protect her cover. She was his Aeryn, after all!

And that was the important thing.

He had to reunite with her, and rid himself of the imposter.

He turned back towards the pod just in time to see Lieutenant Sun hurrying down the steps to ground level.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Chapter 9**

It took Lieutenant Sun, with John and D’Argo trailing a good distance behind, a good ten macrots to reach the Peacekeeper Marauder – on the way he passed and gave wide berth to a second transport pod, but unfortunately didn’t see any sign of his Aeryn’s Prowler.

As he drew back closer to the Marauder, he was just about able to watch as Lieutenant Sun entered through the hatch, presumably to meet Captain Larraq. But where was his Aeryn? 

THERE! A few hundred paces behind Lieutenant Sun was an almost familiar sight! An unmistakably pregnant-looking Aeryn Sun! If what he had overheard was true, it would be his Aeryn! John rushed to catch her, tried to shout out to hail her, but she was too far away and the spaceport was too noisy. Before he could reach her, Aeryn also reached the Marauder and disappeared inside.

Frell! Still, at least she was here, safe, and he knew exactly where both she and the fake Aeryn were located. There was no way she could get away now. Not that either of them wanted her to.

It was another couple of macrots before John caught up and reached the Marauder. To his bemusement, but not to his surprise, someone had activated the lock. Whatever was going on inside the Peacekeeper ship, he was going to have to bide his time to reunite with his Aeryn.

But someone had to come out eventually. It was inevitable.

@@@

“This is my full report, Captain,” Lieutenant Sun declared, handing over the data chip to Larraq. “Everything I have been able to ascertain about wormholes, the alternative reality, Crichton’s home world... Everything.”

“You’ve done well, Lieutenant,” Larraq took the chip and kissed her briefly and almost chastely. 

“Both of you, turn slowly and throw your weapons on the deck,” Aeryn Sun declared, emerging from the back of the cabin.

“Frell! What’s she doing here!?” Lieutenant Sun sneered.

“Aeryn, this isn’t...” Larraq began, taking a step towards her. Aeryn halted him in his tracks by discharging her weapon at his feet. It may have just been a stun gun, but it was noisy and the shot caused a small explosion where it hit the deck. The point was made. 

“Oh, I think it is,” Aeryn snarked. “How long have you been betraying me, Larraq? Let me guess, since about the first time we came to this planet I’d say.”

“Betraying? No, doing my duty!” Larraq responded. “You’re a Peacekeeper. You must realise...?”

“She’s a traitor,” Lieutenant Sun sneered contemptuously. “A deserter.”

“And what are you?” Aeryn snarled back. Lieutenant Sun glanced at Aeryn’s bump and smirked.

“Put the gun down,” Larraq tried to calm their argument. “And we can forget all about...”

“Forget all about my life? All about what you’ve done to me? I don’t think so!” Aeryn announced, circling them until she had clear sight of both of them. “Take off your clothes,” she ordered Lieutenant Sun

“Hardly the time or place?” Larraq laughed. 

“Oh do be quiet!”Aeryn replied, tilting her head to one side in a half nod and casually dropping him to the deck with a shot from the stun gun. Lieutenant Sun gasped in shocked surprise. “Strip. I need your clothes.”

As Lieutenant Sun reluctantly began to comply, Aeryn stared at her like an angry Bantha cat.

“You tried to steal my life! And my husband and my son!”

“I was doing my duty!” Lieutenant Sun countered, still defiant, albeit now clearly afraid of her pregnant doppleganger. “To find out what Crichton knew about wormholes and alternate realities! Besides, do you think swapping clothes will convince him you’re me?”

Aeryn laughed ominously and Lieutenants Sun’s eyes popped as Aeryn used her free hand to unsling something from over her shoulder. It was a length of metal, about twenty denches long and as thick as her wrist. It looked like the longest sex toy Lieutenant Sun had ever seen and was fitted some sort of floppy, rubber sheaf over the end.

“Did you find out anything?” Aeryn demanded as Lieutenant Sun continued to disrobe.

“That Crichton is the strangest creature I have ever met!” Lieutenant Sun responded, now down to her decidedly unPeacekeeper-like underwear.

“You got all those clothes on Erp?” Aeryn asked. Lieutenant Sun nodded. Aeryn shot her a death glare. Lieutenant Sun shuddered. “Anything useful? To Peacekeeper High Command?” Aeryn snarled.

“No... nothing... What are you going to do!?” Lieutenant Sun gabbled nervously.

“Well, Captain Larraq and your Peacekeepers have given me a little present.” She touched her bulging belly. “Should have been yours, not mine. And it’s harsh, but I can’t risk my relationship with John over this. And. As you point out, your clothes alone aren’t going to be enough. So it’s payback time.” And with that Aeryn fired the stun gun for a second time.

@@@

John watched the Marauder studiously from his hiding spot amongst the landing gear of the adjacent craft. After ten long, frustrating macrots, during which his imagination worked overtime as to what terrible events might be unfolding behind the locked and armoured door, the fake Aeryn reappeared at the hatch to the Marauder and then headed off in the opposite direction to his pod. He didn’t know where he was going and didn’t much care: his Aeryn was inside the Marauder, presumably with Larraq, and she might be in need of John’s help!

Taking care to keep D’Argo as sheltered as possible, and bracing himself for flight or fight at any sign of trouble, he nervously approached the Marauder’s hatch once more. Reaching out a trembling hand, he took hold of the actuating lever and pulled. John was in luck! Sun had left the door unlocked! He opened it and gingerly stepped inside.

“Oh babe, what the frell’s been going on!?” John asked rhetorically as he entered the flight deck of the Marauder, stepping over Larraq’s unconscious body to find his Aeryn Sun slumped unconscious in one of the flight deck seats, partially dressed in a Peacekeeper Special Ops Uniform and looking about five months pregnant. He looked down at her hand. No wedding ring – the fake Aeryn had that, he knew.  It would be a pity to lose it, but it was just a thing, of minor importance compared to Aeryn.

This was his Aeryn alright: the clothes, the baby bump... 

“D’Argo, mummy is sleepy, so daddy needs to carry her back to the pod, can you walk that far and keep up?” He asked his son as he straightened her clothing for the sake of her modesty then lifted Aeryn into his arms.

“Yes, daddy,” the infant replied with an earnest nod.

“Off we go then...” John instructed as they headed for the door.

@@@

This was it: the Leviathan transport pod! At last, she would be reunited with her husband and offspring and be able to escape this nightmare and go home. Aeryn Sun swiped the door open and stepped inside.

To find herself staring down the barrel of a pulse pistol.

“ALTAR!” Aeryn hissed, shocked, angry and horrified. 

It was the wrong frelling pod!

“Lieutenant?” he replied. “I missed you!” He lowered the gun and advanced on her, smiling in genuine pleasure and affection. 

“Frell!” Aeryn muttered. Altar flung his arms around her and closed in for a greeting kiss. “NO!” Aeryn evaded his lips as best she could.  She didn’t have time for this! “Bad frell!”

She dodged out of his clearly disappointed and failing embrace and headed for the main console. 

“Have you seen another transport pod?” She demanded frantically, hammering a series of buttons until she had established that the information she so desperately sought was not to be found there.

“No ma’am,” he answered, rallying quickly. “Is it important?”

“It’s vital! We should head back to the Marauder, it has better sensors and...  I think we can get the location of the other pod from someone there!”

@@@

As John opened the hatch to their pod Aeryn began to stir.

“Shh, baby, I’ve got you,” he soothed, carrying her inside, shutting the door and, D’Argo close on his heels, hurrying through to the piloting chamber. 

“John?” she groaned as he laid her gently on the couch at the side of the room, smoothing her hair back from her face.

“Is mommy alright, daddy?” D’Argo asked. “She looks... big.”

“I’ll explain later, son!” He responded. “But mommy is fine now. Everything is going to be just fine!”

“John?” She opened her eyes, hand sliding to her belly. She gasped. She looked shocked. As well she might, finding herself safely back with John on their pod, rather than in whatever dire straits had overtaken her on the Peacekeeper Marauder.

“Everything is going to be alright,” he soothed her. “But that Peacekeeper guy, Larraq, and the Aeryn from this reality are both here, on the planet.”

She still seemed disorientated, as though this were unexpected, too good to be true. She bit her lip, frowned, blinked slowly then nodded, a faint smile appearing on her face.

“Then we ought to get away from here, as quickly as we can,” she smiled broadly. “Before anything else can go wrong.”

“Agreed, let’s skedaddle now, big talks later. But one thing first.” He stared her straight in the eye. “This time, I want to be sure that it’s really you. Spell baby.”

“Bee, ay, bee, why,” Aeryn recounted with a little half smile. 

John smiled back down at her, his fingers lacing with hers on her distended belly.

“And the baby?” 

“I… I didn’t know about it. Then I got hurt. A Peacekeeper surgeon released it without telling me. It’s yours, John, if you want it.”

“Of course I frelling want it! Love you,” he leant in and kissed her squarely on the lips. “Don’t ever change!”

“Good. Then do me a favour.”

“Name it.”

“Get us out of here.”

“Done.” He stood and moved towards the pilot’s seat. “D'Argo, sit in your little couch, we’re taking off!’

And without even pausing to strap himself in, he engaged the engines for take off.

@@@

Aeryn and Altar had just about reached the Marauder when the sound of a Leviathan transport pod taking off nearby caused her to look up. Without pausing for a microt to explain to Altar, she set off at a run towards the second pod. Whatever was going on it wasn’t good, but no way was that tralk getting away with her husband, son and life for a second time!

“Stay with Captain Larraq! He’s unconscious in the Marauder!” Aeryn shouted back at Altar as she ran. A macrot or so later, fired by fury and no longer encumbered by the pregnancy, she arrived at Altars’s pod, swiping the door open and stepping inside, only to find Altar hot on her heels.

“I thought I ordered you to stay with the Captain!” she yelled. “Get off the pod. NOW!”

“He’ll be fine, you might need my help!” Altar declared, ignoring her and following her into the main cabin. Frell, she couldn’t waste time trying to get rid of him now, not while John was presumably making for the wormhole and had a couple of macrots lead on them.

She shook her head at his obstinacy. “Well, Sub-Officer, don’t say I didn’t warn you!” she ground her teeth as she brought the engines up to maximum boost.

@@@

“I can sense it… there’s going to be a wormhole in a few macrots,” John informed D’Argo and Aeryn. “Then we can be gone from this nightmare.”

Aeryn could feel the stun gun wearing off by the microt. She felt she might be able to move. She couldn’t believe her luck. Somehow, Crichton thought that she was his Aeryn, baby bump and all. There would be plenty of time to get to the bottom of the whats and hows later, but for now, the best approach seemed to be to play along. There was still a danger – if the other Aeryn commed them, got to speak to John, maybe she could persuade him to at least delay. And if the other Aeryn did that there was no way Lieutenant Sun could compete with her in a test of “who is the real Mrs Sun-Crichton.”

“You all right, babe? Maybe you should sit it out. I’ve got this,” John addressed her, full of concern, as she lurched towards the systems panel behind the pilot’s seats.

“I’m fine, John. You worry too much!” She riposted grumpily as she reached the dials, steadying herself against it. A light on the panel lit up, signifying an incoming communication. 

 “John!” Aeryn heard her own voice over the comms. “John, it’s…” Her blood went cold, but she kept a steady head. She reached in, grabbed the cabling beneath the light and yanked, hard.

The voice of the other Aeryn was drowned out by interference. Mission accomplished.

“Who was that?” Aeryn disingenuously asked. “She sounded just like me.”

“I’ll explain later, babe,” John replied, totally unaware that it was Aeryn who had cut the transmission. “Wormhole in ten! Oh, and she was nothing like you!”

@@@

Aeryn’s eyes frantically scanned space and her pod’s instruments, looking for any sign of John’s pod. There he was! Moya’s transport pod! And no sign yet of a wormhole. There was still time!

She hit the comms. “John! John! It’s me, Aeryn! You’re making a huge mistake! She’s an imposter! Aeryn screamed down the comms, much to Altar’s obvious consternation. The poor boy had absolutely no idea what was going on.

“John pick up! If you can hear me PICK UP!” Oh frell! Aeryn gasped as a wormhole popped into existence on the far side of the other pod.

“You....” Aeryn turned to Altar with a sad scowl. “Should have stayed with Larraq like I told you,” she told him as she powered up the engines, heading for the wormhole, half a motra behind the other pod. This was why she had gotten Altar to bring the pod, after all: an absolute, last line of defence back up plan. She would follow John into the wormhole and sort it out on the other side.

“Aeryn! What the frell is that thing!” Altar gasped as they entered the maw of the anomaly, hot on the heels of the other transport pod.

@@@

Aeryn was losing sight of John’s pod far too often in the twists and turns of the wormhole. There were just so many of them, and they came so thick and fast. 

Once again he rounded a bend and was out of sight for half a microt. When her pod rounded the same bend, a fork lay just ahead, but of John’s pod there was already no sign. Which way!? She closed her eyes and thought of John, trusting to her thoughts to guide her down the right path. In her mind’s eye she saw him as he had been on the false Earth, on the run with her, watching the rain from the edge of a bed, on the real earth, laughing and joking with her as they had decorated the tree at Jack’s house two cycles before.

It was only a split microt, and they were through the fork, Aeryn’s eyes opening once again, scanning for the next twist or turn. Scanning for John’s pod.

The wormhole network opened ahead of them, she could see the inky blackness of space. Before she had time for second thoughts, the pod shot out into normal space, then the wormhole puckered shut behind them and vanished.

A small, blue-green planet turned slowly beneath their orbit. Aeryn Sun-Crichton took a deep breath and then let out the softest, yet most heartfelt “Frell!”

There was no sign of John and D’Argo’s pod.


	10. Epilogue

**Finale**

“It’s a girl!” Chiana declared as the sounds of a new born baby’s cries filled Moya’s med bay. “Now you’ve got one of each!”

“So much easier than D’Argo,” John declared with a grin. “Still they do say your second is always easier.”

“I think having proper medical facilities might have helped a little, too,” Jool shrugged as she cleaned up her hands from the mess caused by her having acted as midwife.

Lieutenant Aeryn Sun, Black Ghosts, currently on a very deep cover assignment, smiled a genuine smile as the Nebari girl handed her her newborn daughter. 

This place, Moya, a Leviathan free of Peacekeeper control, seemed so happy, so full of joy and friendship... It was a truly intriguing prospect which she wanted to explore further. And not forgetting the prospect of frequent and rather satisfying sex with John Crichton, once she had recovered from the birth, of course. She doubted she would be in any hurry to return to her previous life in the Peacekeepers. In the last two monens John Crichton, the strangest creature she had ever met, had shown her how she could expect more from life than service, promotion, retirement, death and she loved it.

John and Jool showed her how to bring the infant to her breast and position it for feeding. As she felt it latch on a strange, mellow glow came over her, like nothing she had ever experienced before. As she stroked the downy hair on the baby’s head she wondered whose it was – Larraq had never clarified. Was it the human’s? Was it Larraq’s? She would have to find out, discretely and as soon as possible. Forewarned was fore armed after all.

“We’ll have to go back someday,” John Crichton told her as he sat beside their bed, tenderly stroking her hair. “To Erp. I’m so sorry you missed it…” If only he knew!

“Well, at least you and D’Argo got to go, see Jack, your sisters,” Aeryn reminded him, realising she would have to be careful not to let slip that it was in fact her who had accompanied John to visit his family this time, and that the only memories she should have of the place should be from their first visit, a couple of cycles earlier. “And as far as they know, they met me, too, so they’re happy?”

“True,” John nodded. “But you… what about you.”

“I’ll be fine, John. It’s all worked out in the end. But next time, if we go again, how about we go a different way? I really don’t want to go see that reality ever again.” In that, she wasn’t lying.

“Absolutely, babe,” John nodded. “No argument from me there.” 

@@@

“Don’t you think the woman on that show looked a lot like you?” Sub-Officer Altar Darrel remarked as he flicked the TV off and tossed the remote control aside. 

“I wasn’t watching,” Aeryn shrugged, turning slightly to look at him. He sat despondently on the edge of a large double bed, a bottle of a beverage that she knew tasted almost like fellip nectar in his hand, watching the rain now on the large, picture window as it fell onto a stormy Vancouver evening.

“I was watching the rain. I like rain,” Aeryn Sun remarked cheerily as she sat beside him on the edge of the bed, hip and arm grazing against his. She had always been both stoic and pragmatic. Once she had realised where they were, that John wasn’t here and that the wormhole wouldn’t be opening any time soon she had begun to formulate a plan. Of course she was devastated at being separated from D’Argo and John, but there was nothing to be done about it, and she had always been... stoic and pragmatic, even by Peacekeeper standards.

If she was truly stuck here then, as she had done on the favoured planet, so Stark had once told her, she would make the best of her situation. She would not pine away. She remembered the Vancouver area from a goodwill tour on her first visit. It had a lot to recommend it.

Altar was like John in many ways, well, a lot like the younger John. 

In deference to her already visible baby-bump, she sipped from a bottle of juice rather than the beer being drunk by Altar. It had only taken a couple of days after they had come through the wormhole for it to become clear that whatever the med techs had given her to release the first embryo from stasis had still been in her system. Once Larraq’s offspring had gone, the second foetus, Altar’s offspring, had immediately begun to grow.

They had had enough to deal with just trying to find a place to stay and arrange funds to live off. There had been no time and no knowledge to explore what to do about her pregnancy. 

When she had told Altar that she was carrying his child he had been ecstatically happy. Now, though, as their situation had begun to sink in, he seemed somewhat less positive.

“What are we going to do Aeryn... Lieutenant Sun?” She could think of something: she wanted to make love with him. The hormones from the baby were driving her libido wild. “These people are primitives. They can’t even escape their own atmosphere!”

“It’s just Aeryn now.” She told him, trying her hardest not to just jump him and cheer him up that way. “And you’ll get used to them, especially once you learn the language. It’s not all bad, we just need to keep our cover in place.”

“Do you think we can?”

“We have to. But we’ll have to support each other, every step of the way,” she told him, taking his hand and laying it on her pregnant belly. “We have to make it work, for the sake of our child, if nobody else.”

“But I’ve not been trained for any of this: It’s not who I am,” he protested, although his expression softened and his mood seemed to brighten as he cupped and stroked her belly. He would make a good father. But he would need her to show her how to stop being a Peacekeeper.

“Well,” she smiled at him, rubbed her nose against his bare shoulder and kissed it, then laid a hand tenderly on his cheek. “You can be more.”

The end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it I'm afraid. Obviously I have left the door open to a part three, but at present I have no ideas and no inclination to write one. I think, having satisfied the 'kink' prompt, Im off to write something more wholesome for a bit.


End file.
